Apocalypse, Nowish
by redsandman99
Summary: It's the end of the world and as a ragtag group of survivors set out to try to stop the Undertaker and Kane from unleashing their own brand of chaos on earth, they discover this fight is a lot more personal than it seems.
1. The Loner

**I don't need another one…I don't need another one…I don't need this but I'm doing it because this literally will not leave me alone and I can't fight it anymore. So buckle up kiddies, this one will be a real bumpy ride**

…

Jeff stared at the blank canvas in front of him, one can of spray paint in his hand and the others nearby so he could use them when he wanted to. It was around three in the morning and he hadn't been able to sleep so he had gotten out of bed and had decided to try to paint to clear his mind. Unfortunately, this plan wasn't working out too well for him so far. As much as he wanted to do it, he had no inspiration. Some areas of his mind were racing while others were completely restless and useless and his creativity was one of those areas.

He finally decided to just accept defeat for the night and he put his stuff away. For a brief moment he considered going back to bed but decided against it. If he went back, all he was going to do was toss and turn until the sun came up. And he had to say from personal experience that that had gotten old ages ago. So his bed stayed abandoned in favor of him slipping his shoes and hoodie on and snagging his keys off the microwave before heading out the front door. He started shivering right away, the frigid wind that was blowing chilling him to the bone within seconds. During the days the temperature was picking up and it was easy to tell that spring was on the way. At night though, that went away and it was a lot colder than it should have been.

_Fuck me, I should have stayed in the house._ Even as he was thinking that though Jeff was shoving his hands deep into his pockets and walking away from the small, cramped house that Jeff called home. It wasn't what he wanted to call home; he would have much rather have a little bit more of a spacious place out in the middle of nowhere, where he wouldn't be bothered by anybody. But life was never about what he wanted so he was stuck in a shithole he hated, barely making ends meet by stocking stores a few nights a week at a local store. Every night was the same thing and he hated it. He hated the repetitive nature of the work, hated his boss, hated his co-workers-it all just infuriated him but he couldn't quit. It had taken him six months to find this job he just couldn't quit. Not if he wanted to keep a roof over his head anyway.

He shoved his hands deep into his pockets as he kept going, not even having a destination in his mind. He was just going to wherever his feet randomly took him, eventually stopping at an all night convenience store and buying himself a couple packs of cigarettes. Once he left he immediately started lighting up, letting the smoke he inhaled warm him up a bit. Matt was always on his ass about him smoking but he couldn't really give much of a damn about it. It wasn't like he really gave a damn about what Matt had to say anymore. Once upon a time they had been so very beyond close but that had ended long ago. Sometimes Matt went out of his way to try to reach out to him but Jeff shunned any and all attempts. He was tired of all of Matt's bullshit. He had put up with it for years and years and just couldn't do it anymore. Big brother had let him down time and time and time again and there was just no more forgiveness in him left to give him another chance.

He let his wanderings take him into the downtown area, somewhere he didn't venture too often beyond when he went to work or went shopping. The few friends he did have often accused him of being a recluse and really, they were completely right about that. Unlike them though, he didn't see it as a bad thing. So what if he didn't like to go out and talk to people or whatever? He had tried that for awhile. One of the times he ran off from Matt before he cut him out of his life more permanently he enrolled himself into college and went for a few months, not because he wanted the education but because he wanted to be normal. He wanted to make friends, go to parties, do everything he had seen on TV and in the movies. But that had all gone to hell on him and now, beyond associating with his co-workers when he had to, his few friends and the stuff they sometimes dragged him out on, he avoided society like the plague.

A small crashing sound caught his attention and he stopped right in his tracks, listening hard to see if he heard it again. At first he didn't but just as he was about to blow it off he heard a short scream and growling that sounded like it had come from a wild animal. _Oh fuck me._ He wanted to just walk away because he already knew this wasn't going to be something he wanted any part of but his conscious wouldn't allow him to do that. So off he went, following the sounds and reaching into his pocket and touching one of the two weapons he always carried around with him as a precaution. _I fucking hate this shit…_

It was happening in an alley behind the hair salon. A young woman, probably in her early to mid-twenties and probably a prostitute judging from the way she was dressed was being shoved up against the wall by a vampire. She was screaming her head off and it was making Jeff's ears ring. He himself was numb to seeing pretty much everything of the supernatural variety and long ago forgot how scary for someone who had never seen anything remotely like it before outside of movies or TV shows.

Without saying a word he whipped out his stake and drove it into the vampire's heart before it could sink its fangs into the woman's neck. Once upon a time he would have engaged it in a fight, getting a thrill out of it but now he just watched blankly as it turned to dust and he was left face to face with the frightened woman. She stared at him with wide eyes for a long moment before jumping all over him, hugging him and speaking in rapid fire Spanish. His eyes just about popped out of his head and he literally just stood there and let her hug him for a bit, uncomfortable with the sudden contact but too shocked by it to just push her off right away. Finally though he got a hold of himself and unwrapped her arms from his neck and shook his head. "Go home," he said shortly and curtly. He quickly turned away from the confused and hurt look hurt on her face and walked off, shivering as the wind cut through him yet again. The stake went back into his pocket and he ended up wandering around for a few more hours, finally going to his friend Mickie's house just as the sun was starting to rise. She had been calling him telling him that they needed to hang out again and if he didn't get in touch with her she was going to come invade his house and not leave until they got some good old fashioned bonding time. He had known her long enough now to know that wasn't an idle threat so now he was going to get the quality time over with and maybe even get something to eat out of it. Mickie liked to cook for him because she claimed he was too skinny and a lot of the time he didn't bother to argue with her since he got free meals out of the deal.

He rang her doorbell and waited. When she answered the door she grinned and happily threw her arms around his neck. Now her he hugged back and breathed in her scent, trying to figure out just what the hell she smelled like today. She took a lot of baths with oils and herbs and stuff and it all just combined to make for a rather interesting scent. That wasn't implying that it was bad or anything; that was far, far from the truth. But while most girls he had known usually went for like vanilla or coconut or some kind of sweet scent, Mickie always had more like of a woods-y kind of thing going for her.

"How are you?" she asked as she pulled him into the house.

He shrugged. "About the same." He looked all around the house, noticing that there were blankets and unfamiliar pillows on the couch. "Did you fall asleep out here or something?"

"No Adam crashed here last night," Mickie replied. She lead him into the kitchen, where Adam was attempting to help with breakfast. "He and Randy finally broke up and he ended up getting kicked out so he's staying here until whenever."

Jeff nodded along, feeling pretty out of the loop. He had met both Adam and Randy through Mickie (who he had met when she found him after a rough fight with a couple of demons and had taken charge and gotten him all cleaned up before even learning his name) and as far as he had known, their relationship had been great. Then again, he hadn't ever tried to get too close to either one of them. He knew he gave Randy the creeps and Adam…well he wasn't so sure about him. He knew that he always felt weird around him and his instinct was always to avoid him because he wasn't sure what that feeling was all about. Maybe it was the interest that Adam always showed towards him. It felt different than pretty much anyone else's. At least he thought it did. Maybe he was reading too much into it. Or maybe he wasn't. He didn't know. He had no way of knowing and that drove him nuts because he needed to know these things. He had thought about asking Mickie but he was too embarrassed to actually do it. He was much more comfortable not knowing rather than asking her and risking major embarrassment.

"Hey Jeff." Adam grinned and nodded as he looked over at him and Mickie. "Pancakes or eggs?"

Jeff shrugged. "Pancakes are fine." He wasn't much of an egg person really. Matt used to make them all the time because he loved them so much and Jeff had gotten so burned out on them that he could barely even stomach the thought of eating them ever again.

Adam nodded along, a little grin spreading across his face. "I'm on the same boat as you are." He playfully sneered and shook his head at Mickie. "Little Miss Wicked Witch of the East-OW!" He pouted as Mickie slugged him on the arm. "What was that?"

"I told you that if you started that "wicked witch" crap again I would hurt you." Mickie folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. When Jeff had originally met her, she had been checking out the local magic shop just for kicks and that had sparked her interest in that little world. At first her friends and family thought she was just fucking around with it but she had actually been pretty damn serious. So far she could only really do small spells, like making things float, glamours, making fire out of ice (which left a huge scorch mark on the floor) and making small inanimate objects disappear and reappear but Jeff figured it was only a matter of time before she could do bigger and better ones.

Adam pouted his lips. "I was only joking. I'm gonna tell the townspeople now and have them burn you at the stake for being mean."

"You're going to orchestrate my death for me being "mean"? Well that's just all kinds of mature."

Jeff shook his head as Mickie and Adam continued to go back and forth. He knew they would be going on for quite awhile so he decided to just take his leave and go to the bathroom so he could wash his hands. When he entered the bathroom he heard the pipes groaning loudly but he didn't think anything of it at first. His plumbing did the same thing at his house so he turned the knobs on the sink as he hummed softly under his breath. At first nothing came out of the faucet which made him frown. "Mi-"

There was a loud bang from within the pipes and then blood started to come out of the faucet in place of the water. His eyes just about popped out of his head at the sight of it. At first he thought he was seeing shit but then he turned off the faucet and when he turned it back on the blood still came out, which made him immediately shut it back off…only it didn't stop. In fact, it just started coming out even faster. _Well fuck me._ _That's a bad omen if I ever saw one. _He backed out of the bathroom real quick and started heading towards the kitchen. "Mickie! Uh...we've got a problem here!"


	2. Omens

Amy Dumas found herself once again running across the cemetery, her heart pounding inside of her chest and the cold wind not only blowing through her hair and making it a mess but putting a lot of pressure on her exposed ears and making them numb. In the morning she would have an earache but that wasn't anything she could dwell on now. No now she had to keep running and get the vampire that was trying to get away from her. She and her friends had found a nest and they had gotten all but one of the vamps that it consisted of. Normally she didn't put that much effort into getting every single vampire but this one had ripped one of her favorite shirts and gave her a bloody nose so it had to pay.

She picked up the speed she was running at, eventually launching herself off a tombstone and grabbing the vampire by the shoulder and knocking it to the ground. She landed right on top of it, wincing as it tried to reach back and claw her in the face. "Mother fucker…" She tried to just drive her stake through its heart but it managed to elbow her in the face and push her off. Her cheek was throbbing now but she ignored it in favor of swiping the vamp's legs out from under it. It went crashing back down to the ground and she slammed the stake through it's heart, a small smile crossing her lips when it turned into dust seconds later. She didn't get too long to celebrate though. Something grabbed her by the back of the neck and lifted her up before flinging her away, sending her crashing to the ground about eight feet away.

"Amy!" Her friends Jay and Chris were running over her way. "AMY!"

She winced in pain and scrambled back up to her feet. It was a demon that had thrown her like she had weighed closed to nothing. It stood about six foot six and it was a bluish grayish color with a head and face that could only be compared to an octopus. "Holy shit," she muttered under her breath. She couldn't even begin to figure out what kind of demon it was and honestly, she wasn't looking to really find out. She just wanted to kill it so she could go home, shower and go to bed.

"I got him!" Chris grabbed the demon by the arms and did his best to restrain it. "Kill it!" he yelled at Jay. "Kill it kill it kill it!"

Jay raised the dagger he was holding up but before he could use it the demon leaned forward and threw Chris off, causing him to crash into Jay and they both went down to the ground. Amy ran at it full speed, giving it a dropkick that made it stumble back a couple of steps. Shit. That hadn't really had the impact that she had been hoping it would be having. She rolled back up to her feet and ducked one of its massive arms as it swung at her head. "Mother fucker…" She kicked it in the stomach and placed both of her hands on its shoulders and jumped up on to it, attempting to take it down with a hurricarana. It stayed firmly on its feet though and even attempted to smash her head up against the nearest crypt. She managed to sit herself up though just in time and started punching it right in the head.

"Some help would be nice here!"

"I got it I got it!" Jay got Chris pushed off of him and dove forward, driving his dagger deep into the demon's chest.

"Whoa!" Amy cried out as the demon fell on to its back with her still on it. "Holy shit…"

"Well that was just all kinds of fun," Jay said dryly. He grabbed Amy by her arms and pulled her up to her feet. "I believe you both owe me ten bucks since I am the Slay Master for tonight."

Amy snorted loudly at that. "You? What are you talking about? I killed more of those vamps than either one of you did."

"I got that demon didn't I?"

"Yeah, with me blocking its face so you couldn't see it." She noticed she now had stains on her pants and she groaned out loud. "Damn it."

"Well that's what you get for blocking its face with your crotch," Jay said matter of factly. He bent down and helped Chris up to his feet. "You okay there buddy?"

Chris shook his head. His eyes were squeezed shut in pain and his teeth were clenched tightly together. "I think I threw my back out again."

"Again?" Jay shook his head incredulously. "Didn't you just claim earlier that you were all better?"

"Well obviously I was wrong." Chris sucked in a harsh breath and opened his eyes to give them a glare. "Well are you just going to stand there or help me?"

Amy and Jay both exchanged looks. For a moment it was really tempting to just push Chris's cranky ass back down and just leave him there but they ultimately decided to help him back to their apartment. "You're lucky we love you," Amy informed him. "And feel sorry for you."

"Hey, me saving your asses is why my back is fucked up in the first place," Chris reminded them. "So maybe a little gratitude here people?" When he was right he was right. Two weeks ago she and Jay had gotten cornered by this giant demon that was literally about to kill them when Chris came in and saved their asses. His back had been thrown completely out and tonight had been his first night back out hunting with them. Obviously though, tonight had been way WAY too soon.

"I'll show you my gratitude," Jay promised. A lecherous look crossed his face and Amy found herself rolling her eyes. "I'll show you it all-"

"Okay I don't even want to hear that." Amy gave them both a death glare to put a permanent end to that conversation. The two of them were a couple while she was the odd one out and it was hard as hell sharing a home with them. It really really was. Sometimes she wondered why she put up with being the third wheel but then remembered that if she didn't live with them, she would be royally fucked. She was flat broke and wouldn't even be able to afford a shitty apartment in a freaking ghetto. She would be homeless again, just like she had been during her teenaged years. She had run away from home at the age of fourteen and had braved the streets until the age of eighteen, when she had met a demon hunter by the name of Matt Hardy.

Matt…she hadn't really thought about him for awhile. They had dated for six years and he had gotten her into his world of demon hunting. Living on the streets had made her aware of what went bump in the night way before she had met him but it wasn't until him that she began to fight back. The way she saw it, since she couldn't provide society any other real contributions, she would hunt and help to protect the innocent. It was a job to her. But to him, it had been an obsession. An unhealthy, all consuming obsession that eventually drove away the people around him. She had tried to hang on and make things work for as long as she could, but after a year and a half of misery she had been forced to give up. She just couldn't put up with it anymore.

That had been three years ago. Since then she had seen Matt maybe a handful of times. The last time had been about six months ago, when he had been shacked up with some prostitute named Ashley and he had been taking out a nest of fire demons by the beach. She didn't even know whether he was still alive though or not.

As it always did, thoughts about Matt made her think about his younger brother Jeff. He had been fifteen when she had met him and he had been just the sweetest boy. Over time though, Matt's constant demon obsession and him driving Jeff to turn into him had twisted the sweet boy she had met into a recluse that she barely could even talk to anymore. He rarely came out of his house and when he did or when she went over there it was hard to believe he was even the same person sometimes.

"Amy? Yo Amy? Are you with us?"

Amy blinked, forced out of her thoughts by Jay's voice. "Yeah," she nodded. "I'm here. I'm fine."

Her answer really wasn't believable in the least but neither Jay or Chris pushed her anymore on the subject. They walked the rest of the way home in silence. Once they were there Jay and Chris went to their room and Amy flopped down on the couch, intending to just relax for a few minutes before she got back up to take her bath. But exhaustion overtook her when she wasn't expecting it and within seconds she was completely passed out.

…

_She was running again. Through a forest this time. The branches were all hitting her face as she went, slicing her face with small scratches. Unlike in the cemetery earlier, she was the chased, not the chaser. What was after her though, she didn't even know. It was filling her with sheer terror though and she picked up the pace of her running to try to get away from it. It was so dark that she was running pretty much completely blind, which only made her more terrified. _

_She ducked down lower to try to avoid the majority of the branches but after running another ten feet the ground below her turned into a sharp hill and she fell down it, landing awkwardly on top of her left leg and rolling down it, not stopping until she hit a large rock that was at the bottom. The impact made her groan and she just laid there for awhile, trying not to pass out from the pain._

_When the pain finally subsided somewhat she forced herself back up to her feet. The moon was providing at least a little bit of light so she was able to kind of see where she was going as she started walking once again. Her side was killing her now but she sucked it up and kept going, eventually finding herself in front of a giant oak tree with a hooded figure hanging from a rope around its neck. The figure was huge, nearly seven feet tall at the very least. Her instincts screamed at her to run but her feet didn't obey. Instead they took her closer to the thing and her hand raised up automatically to try to reach out and touch it._

_The figure's head suddenly snapped up and it glared at her with bright red eyes. She let out a startled scream and started trying to get away. A whole bunch of hands grabbed her legs though and she found herself being pulled down…_

Amy shot straight up, gasping for breath and covered in a cold sweat. She was still on the couch and the back of her neck was stiff from the way she had been laying. She put her hand over her chest, trying to will her heartbeat to slow down. Sunlight was streaming in through the window and a glance at the clock hanging on the wall let her know it as nine in the morning now. "Fuck." She slowly got up to her feet and stretched out, rubbing the back of her neck and yawning loudly as she went upstairs. She could hear Jay and Chris both snoring from in their rooms and it made her shake her head as she went into her room and grabbed herself a change of clothes before getting in the shower. She stayed in there for nearly an hour, just letting the hot water soothe her muscles after she was done getting washed up. The water eventually turned cold on her and that was when she got off, dried herself off, got dressed and left the bathroom just in time to hear a loud pounding on the door. "I'm coming!" She rand down the steps as the pounding only got louder. "I'm coming damn it! Just hold your horses!" She practically ran the rest of the way to the door, her eyes widening when she found Steve Austin on the other side of it. "Hey!"

Steve nodded at her and stepped inside. "Amy." He grunted as she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tight. They had met through Matt several years ago and he had become a father figure of sorts for her. It had taken him awhile to warm up to her; for the longest time she had thought he had hated her. But eventually they had gotten close and after a moment of trying to be difficult just because that was the way he hugged her back. "You've been watching the news?"

"No." She let him go and frowned. "Why? What's the matter?"

He shook his head and held up the newspaper he was holding. "Omens."

"Omens?"

"Mhm. Fourteen reports of blood coming from sinks, two babies born with snakes coming out of their eye sockets and seven people boiled alive in their bathtubs-"

"Whaaat?" Amy shook her head and stared at him in shock. _So maybe it was a good thing I didn't get in the shower last night._

"Yeah." Steve walked into the kitchen and she quickly followed him. "It's fucking all apocalypse shit." He placed the paper down on the table. "Where's Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumbass?"

"Still in bed," she told him. "You want me to get them up?"

"Well considering the situation-"

THUMP!

Steve and Amy both frowned and looked towards the back door, where the noise came from. "What the hell…"

Amy went back and opened the door, her eyes widening when she saw a dead sparrow laying there. It's bloody body print stained the glass on the door, showing where exactly it had crashed and burned out. "Oh my goodness…poor thing…"

"Amy close the door," Steve said sharply.

"Poor birdie." Amy got down on her knees and was too absorbed in the animal to really get the urgency in Steve's voice. She loved animals and this just really screwed her up to see.

"Amy close the door!"

"Steve I-" She yelped as she was suddenly grabbed roughly by the arm and yanked back inside. "ST-" She stopped in mid-word and gasped as Steve slammed the door shut just as an entire flock of birds flew at them top speed and smashed themselves into the door and falling dead on top of the first one.


	3. Plans

**Thank you everyone for your reviews so far : ) Really appreciate it.**

**While only mentioned briefly in this chapter, credit to Mindy goes to my partner in crime Vermi**

…

"Is the sink still bleeding?" Adam asked Mickie, who was on the phone with somebody. Jeff was in the other room watching the news. Apparently shit was happening all over the place. Other people had blood coming from their sinks and babies were being born with snakes for their eyes…one report even said that one of the snakes had bit a doctor in the neck, its venom killing the man before he could be helped. All in all, it was freaky shit all around and he didn't even know what to think.

Mickie didn't say a word to him. Instead she just turned on the faucet and they watched as water came out of it. They let it run for several more seconds before she shut it back off. Then she went back to her conversation and he was left to chew on his lower lip and sigh loudly. He really felt out of his element right now. All this supernatural stuff was just not his element by any means. His closest friends Jay and Chris were both hunters now, although with them who knew how long it would actually last. Officially they had been doing it for about a year now, although they had known about that whole underworld scene for a bit longer. They had met Jeff when he had given college a try and apparently his older brother Matt had come to town not too long afterwards in an attempt to get him to come help him hunt down some demon he had been chasing for months. As it turned out, the demon had switched its gears and had started hunting Matt instead, so it followed him on to the college campus and started killing off people in huge numbers before a way was found to stop it.

Adam hadn't been there to witness all of that for himself. After a few months of his freshmen year he had decided that college life wasn't for him. So he had gone off, trying to fulfill his dream of being a rockstar. It didn't work out for him at all, although he did meet Randy from that whole experience so it hadn't been a total loss. Eventually he admitted defeat for the time being and went back to school, where he was actually supposed to be now. There was no way he was going today though. Even if he went there was no way he would be able to concentrate. Breaking up with Randy had been hard enough on him despite being for the best and the whole blood in the sink thing really freaked him out, so he was better off not going and just wasting the gas in his car.

He looked at Mickie, trying to assess whether she was anywhere close to being done on the phone. It didn't seem like she was so he just went out and joined Jeff in the living room. Jeff didn't so much as look his way, although he did stiffen up considerably. That made Adam feel all sorts of weird. Even though he had been told over and over again that that was just the way Jeff was he still couldn't help but sometimes feel that he had done something to make Jeff not like him. To say Jeff was distant would be like saying a flood was just a little rain. The walls he obviously had around him were made out of solid steel. Jay and Chris all said he wasn't quite as bad when they had met him and Amy had said he used to be a really sweet boy, but after Matt and the demon world collided with his college life he had retreated into himself and now there was barely any getting through to him.

"Anything new?" he finally asked after several minutes of awkward silence.

Jeff shook his head and finally switched away from the local news. "It was the same thing over and over again until they switched to the weather and then some local dog show bullshit." He flipped through the channels until another news broadcast caught his attention. His brow furrowed and he lowered the remote, which made Adam look at the television to see what it was that was on.

"The top story today, the deaths of rockstar Mindy Strauts and her husband James Lawson have officially been ruled a double homicide. Stratus, who was pregnant with the couple's first child, was found in the living room of the couple's Las Vegas home while Lawson was found hanging from a tree in their backyard. No suspects have been made public, although sources have indicated there was definitely more than one killer and has already been compared to the Manson family murders in their brutality-"

Jeff switched the channels and shook his head. "They're never going to stop talking about that."

"It's the news story of the century," Adam dead panned. He wasn't a fan of Mindy's music and he didn't know much about that husband of hers other than he was a certified giant and he got violent with overzealous paparazzi.

Jeff grunted and that ended that conversation. He kept flipping through the channels until Mickie walked back into the room and then he switched the TV off all together.

"Who did you talk to?" Adam asked.

"Gail."

"Who?"

"One of my witch buddies."

"Ah." Once again, Adam felt out of the loop but he didn't even try to convey that. Instead he just nodded along and rolled with it. "She know anything that we don't?"

"No-"

"Then what was the point in talking to her?"

Adam gave Jeff a startled look while Mickie just sighed and gave him an exasperated look. "Do I really need to dignify that one with a response?"

He wilted a bit and did look apologetic but he didn't actually say anything. Mickie waited just in case and then went on when he still didn't speak. "She said there might be a way we could figure out what's going on."

"And what would that be?" Adam asked.

"A spell-"

"Are you ready for that?" Jeff was speaking up once again. "You don't have much experience."

"I know…" Mickie pursed her lips and shifted around from foot to foot. "Gail's got way more experience than me though, she can do the majority of it. I would just have to help her."

"And the spell will just tell you what's going on?"

"Well I mean not exactly. It would be like a map that showed where the stuff is coming from. And there's like different colors that would be involved and like one will indicate demons or another will-oh you know what? It sounded a lot better when Gail explained it to me." She ran a hand through her hair and shook her head. "But yeah, that's what we're doing. So…yeah." She nodded her head a bit before turning around and going back into the kitchen.

"Good to know." Adam gave two thumbs up to her retreating figure and then frowned as his phone vibrated inside of his pocket. "Who…" He took it out and answered it without even looking at the number. "Hello?"

"Hey Adam!" Jay's voice was way too cheerful for Adam's liking. That meant he wanted something. "Listen, I-"

"No," Adam said automatically.

"What?" Jay whined and he could be heard stomping his foot. "You don't even know what I was going to ask."

"And I don't care to know. Now goodbye."

"But-"

Adam didn't let him finish the sentence. He just hung up and looked at Jeff, who was staring at the TV, which still hadn't been turned back on. "You want something to drink?" he asked as he got up.

Jeff seemed to not respond but then Adam thought he saw him shake his head slightly.

"Fine." Adam was already heading to the kitchen. "Suit yourself." He was about to go in when he suddenly stopped and looked back at Jeff and just stared at him. He found himself almost tempted to say something else to him but when he couldn't think of anything that didn't sound stupid he just let the younger man be.

…

Ashley Massaro woke up to the sound of Matt muttering and cursing under his breath. That wasn't anything unusual so she tried to just tune it out and go back to sleep. Usually she didn't like to get up until well into the afternoon, which normally worked out great for her and Matt's living situation. They both were complete night owls, him because he was out hunting demons from the moment the sun went down to the moment it came out and her because she was either working at the strip club or selling her body out on the street so they could afford things like food and rent and all that. It did annoy her that she was having to be the breadwinner for the two of them, but even though Matt totally failed in that department, he was good for two other things: sex and protection from her former pimp Paul London. Paul was scared of Matt because he thought he was a complete lunatic (and he wasn't wrong for thinking that because he pretty much was) and Ashley was more than willing to hide behind him. Dealing with him and his crazy demon crap was a hell of a lot better than getting the fuck beat out of her by Paul.

Matt's muttering got louder and she cracked her eyes open so she could check the time. For some reason though, the clock that was supposed to be by her was not there and for a moment, she considered sitting up and trying to figure out just where the hell it was. But then she decided to just forget about it and put her pillow over her head so she could fall back asleep. She actually managed it for awhile, but then she was woken back up by Matt roughly shaking her awake. "Whaaat?" she grumbled.

"We're leaving."

She took the pillow off her head so she could look at him. He was standing there with that same cold hard expression that never seemed to go away. She at first wondered if he had always been like that or if all this demon hunting nonsense had drained him of his personality. Now she just really didn't care. She was more interested in staying on his good side so he didn't kick her ass to the curb. He was using her and she was using him too, so she didn't mind that really. But she did need him more than he needed her and she knew he would kick her to the curb without as much of a second thought. "Where are we going?" she asked as she rolled out of bed and grabbed her clothes.

"To see my brother."

That was actually more of an answer than what she was actually expecting to get so she just accepted that. "Can I shower before we go?"

"Make it quick."

She nodded and quickly went into the bathroom, hoping he just didn't leave her behind like he did his last two girls. He had freely admitted that he had done it because they hadn't moved fast enough to his liking. _Fucking bastard…_

…

Matt barely even paid attention to the sounds of Ashley in the shower. Instead he looked at the map that was spread out on his table. It was a map of the country and he had all sorts of little pins sticking out of it at different places. All the cluster of red pins represented places were there had been a huge rise of demonic activity for the past month. His sources have all pointed to all of them being in more populated areas, although it was starting to spread everywhere. The blue pins were other supernatural activity and they had started popping up just within the past twelve hours or so and there seemed to be no real pattern to them.

Something was definitely up. That was what he knew for sure. There were times of the year demonic activity just rose and then fell back down but it was too much. The spike was getting way way too high and something was up. He didn't know what it was but he was going to find out. He didn't plan on doing it alone though. If it was anywhere near as big as he thought it was, he wanted Jeff by his side. He knew that it would take some convincing; Jeff was angry at him for not letting him live a "normal" life and turning him into a "freak" who was almost as cold as he was. But this couldn't be about that petty bullshit. Jeff just had to get over it and then they could properly deal with the situation at hand.

He started packing his stuff away, his eyes continually drifting towards the picture of his father that he always kept with him. It was one of the few truly personal items that he had and midway through packing he stopped and picked it up, looking at it closely and tracing his fingers over it. The life he lived with him and Jeff was a lifetime ago. He could barely even remember who he was back then. Just a kid really…

He quickly shook his head to chase off all of that nonsense. He didn't have time to be dwelling on that. He needed to finish packing and if Ashley wasn't out of the shower by the time he was done he was more than likely just going to leave her. He didn't have the time to waste. The sooner he got to Jeff, the better.

…

"Damn it! No no no PLEASE start!" Maria Kanellis slapped her palms against her steering wheel in frustration as she once again tried to get her car to start. It had broke down on the side of the road and despite her best attempts, she could not get it restarted. It just made clicking sounds and then nothing. "Fuck!" She put her hand up to her forehead and shook her head. This could not be happening. She had already been running late for work and her boss had told her that he was going to fire her if she couldn't stop screwing up. She worked for a fashion magazine and she loved doing it, but she was klutzy and ditzy by nature and that was just really wearing on her boss and co-workers' nerves. And it seemed like the harder she tried to be better, the worse things turned out for her.

She reached over and opened her purse and pulled out her cell phone. Of course there was no service. She cursed loudly and got out of her car and looked around. Cars were zooming right past her, not even caring to slow down. "Hey!" she yelled out, waving her arms around to try to get somebody's attention. "Please…no please stop!" She waved her arms around more but to no avail. Nobody was even giving her a second glance, assuming they were even giving her a first one.

She let out a long sigh and looked forward. It would take another twenty minutes to drive to work and walking would take at least twice as long. "Damn it…"

"Is there a problem miss?"

She gasped in surprise and spun around. A white limousine with longhorns on the end of it was parked behind her car and a big man wearing a suit and a cowboy hat had stepped out of the backseat of it. "M-my car," she managed to stammer out once she got over her surprise. "It died and I can't get it going again."

"Oh now that's just too bad. You call a tow truck?"

"My phone has no service."

The man reached into his pocket and checked his own phone. "What do you know, mine don't either." He put it back in his pocket. "This area is horrible for reception." He beckoned her to come closer. "Why don't you let me and my driver drop you off where you need to go and you can call someone to get your car from there?"

"You wouldn't mind?" Maria pushed down her mother's voice, which was rising up to tell her that this wasn't a good idea. She didn't have any other choice in the matter. Nobody else had stopped and who knew if anyone else would? She couldn't just stay stuck stranded there on the side of the road. That was so totally not safe.

"Of course not." He stepped out of the way of the open door so she could come over and get into the car. "I'm Bradshaw by the way."

"Maria." She shook her head and started to get in when a chloroform soaked rag suddenly was placed tightly over her face. She squeaked and tried to fight it off but Bradshaw was too strong. She ended up passing out pretty quickly and then he roughly shoved her into the car and signaled for his driver to go.


	4. Sacrifice

When Mickie went off to go see Gail Jeff and Adam both left, Jeff going back to his house and Adam heading over to see Jay and Chris. He had invited Jeff to come with him, but not surprisingly, Jeff had turned him down. He had thought about trying harder to get Jeff to come with him but had decided it wasn't worth it. The very few times he had seen Jeff with everyone else he had not been even remotely comfortable in the situation. He did wonder if there was anything that could be done to help Jeff with that but he didn't feel comfortable enough to bring it up to anyone else. It just didn't feel like it was his place to do it.

When he got to Jay and Chris's house he just let himself in the front door because at this point, he didn't have to knock. He knew damn well he was welcome at any time. "Jay?" he called out as he shut the door behind him. He wasn't hearing the TV going or Jay or Chris yelling up a storm as usual and that made him frown a bit. "Chris? You guys here?"

He didn't get an answer but he did hear something going on so he followed the sounds of it to the back door, where Jay and Chris were arguing while standing over a bucket of water.

"Dude, YOU go out there this time," Jay told Chris. "THIS shit is DISGUSTING I'm going to get SICK-"

"I've been out there just as long as you have," Chris reminded him. "And you know what? My stomach is weaker than yours. Plus my back is still hurt! I can't be lifting that stupid bucket of water anyway!"

"You're just using that as an excuse."

"Am not! It's my legitimate reason."

"If you love me you would do it."

"Do what?" Adam asked. He was stepping in because he was beyond confused about what they were going on about.

Jay and Chris looked over at him and Jay immediately rolled his eyes. "Oh NOW you show up! When we're almost done with cleanup of course."

Adam blinked in confusion. He didn't understand why he should be roped into cleanup for a mess he didn't make and he almost said that. But then he decided to not even get into that with Jay. "What the hell is going on?" he asked Chris. He would hopefully get an answer out of him without getting bitched at for no real reason.

"Well," Christ took a deep breath and shook his head "a bunch of birds decided it would be funny to commit mass suicide by hitting our back door at full speed."

Adam blinked, definitely not expecting to hear that one. "Are you serious?"

"Uh huh." Chris pointed towards the back door. "We had to scrape all the birdy bodies up with a shovel and put them in the garbage bag out there. We're still trying to get the blood and guts up off the porch though."

Adam wrinkled his nose. That sounded absolutely disgusting but yet he still found himself picking up the bucket of hot soapy water so he could go out and see it for himself. The moment he stepped outside he gagged violently. It reeked of absolute death out there. Amy and Steve were doing the cleanup and they both had their shirts up over their mouths so they could even breathe out there. "This is disgusting!" he exclaimed.

"Tell me about it," Amy muttered as Steve took the bucket from him. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"You're cleaning it up if you do," Steve warned her. He seemed to be even more cranky than usual, which made Adam wince a bit. Steve could get scary when he got really cranky.

"I know I know." Amy was just brushing Steve's gruffness off. She was more than used to it.

Steve shook his head and looked at Adam. "Where's dumb and dumber?"

"Inside."

"Well GET them! They can help too."

Adam quickly went back into the house, only to find that Chris and Jay had barricaded themselves up in their room and were refusing to come out and help anymore. Apparently their stomachs couldn't take it. Adam tried to convince them to come out but even pointing out how pissed Steve would be didn't help. Finally he had to admit defeat and he went back downstairs to find that Steve and Amy were finally done. "They wouldn't listen to me," he said quickly when he saw the death glare Steve was giving him. "I tried but they wouldn't."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Fucking ridiculous. Fucking fucking ridiculous." He said more but it was all under his breath and Adam figured it was best that he didn't understand it.

Amy shook her head and turned on the water as hot as she could stand it. She and Steve had both been wearing gloves during the cleanup but her hands still felt just beyond disgusting . "So Adam, did uh, anything strange happen to you last night?"

"Mickie's sink had blood coming out of it," he replied. "But no kamikaze birds on our front."

"Lucky. Where's Mickie anyway?" Amy was scrubbing the hell out of her hands, stepping aside so Steve could join in.

"Went to go see her friend Gail."

"Who?"

"Some witchy friend of hers I guess. Jeff was with us too."

Amy's eyes widened a bit at that. "Jeff?" She shook her hands off and grabbed the towel so she could dry them. "He was there?"

Adam nodded. "For a bit."

"How was he?"

"Quiet like usual. I asked him if he wanted to come over but he said no."

Amy sighed and ran her hand through her long red hair. When she got a chance she was going to go and check on him. Him holing up in his house the way he did was just not healthy.

"Guys! GUYS!" Jay's voice was in the living room and Adam had no idea at what point he had come downstairs. "Come here!"

Steve rolled his eyes and went to see what the hell it was he was yelling about. Amy and Adam quickly followed behind him to make sure he didn't throttle Jay for bailing on the dead bird cleanup. How they would ever pull Steve off of him was beyond Adam but luckily they didn't have to do that. Jay had the news on and Steve's eyes were focused on it, which in turn made Adam and Amy focus on it.

"…restaurants all through the downtown area have been subject to what are being labeled as "animal attacks" although several eye witnesses claim these things are far far from animal…"

Adam's eyebrows shot up and Steve, Amy and Jay were already grabbing weapons and heading for the door. "I'm guessing that's civilian speak for demon?"

"Usually is," Steve grunted. "We'll be finding out for sure."

"Shouldn't you get Chris?"

"His back is fucked up, he can't fight," Jay told him. He was bringing up the rear of the leaving trio. "Hey Adam…if I don't make it back…you can't have my PS3."

Adam smirked. "Hey Jay…if you don't make it back…you can't stop me from taking it."

"Oh you little-" Jay tried to go over and throttle Adam but Amy and Steve dragged him out the door by force, leaving Adam to laugh and mock him as he went.

…

Gail lived with her mother because the elderly woman needed lots of care and she didn't want her going into a nursing home. Her boyfriend Daniel Bryan lived with her as well and he was the one that let Mickie into the house when she arrived. Their relationship was truly beauty and the geek. Gail was stunning and Bryan was…well cute yeah but not in a traditional way. It was more the awkward geeky kind of cute that really didn't traditionally get all the hot babes. Then again, Gail had had her share of "sexy" boyfriends and none of them ended well. Maybe a guy like Bryan was what it took to make things work in the long run.

"Babe? Mickie's here," Bryan announced as he led her into the den. Gail had been sitting on the floor in the middle of the room getting things ready for the spell but she got up to her feet so she could come over and give Bryan a kiss.

"Thanks honey." She kissed him again, a bit harder this time. "Can you-"

"Feed Mama?" Bryan guessed and she nodded. "Sure thing." He gave her one last kiss before going to do just that.

Mickie smiled. "How's she been?"

"Eh…she's got her days. Bryan's been a huge help though." That was all Gail really wanted to say on the matter and Mickie wisely let it go.

"So how's this spell going to work anyway?" she asked as she and Gail sat down across from each other on the floor. There was a small red pouch near where Gail's spot and they had a giant square of twine held down by four different colored crystals sitting in between them.

"The square is a map," Gail explained. She took the red pouch and poured some of the contents into Mickie's hands. "After we say the incantation all we have to do is blow this stuff on to it and we should hopefully get some kind of answers."

"And that's it?"

"Uh huh. It's so simple a caveman can do it." She poured some of the stuff into her own hands and nodded at Mickie. "You ready?"

Mickie nodded.

"Close your eyes then."

Mickie did what she was told. Seconds later Gail was starting and Mickie closed her eyes more tightly just to be safe.

"Thespia, we walk in shadow, walk in blindness. You are the protector of the night." Gail's voice was so strong and loud that Bryan could hear them in the kitchen. "Thespia, goddess, ruler of all darkness, we implore you, open a window to the world of the under being." She started to blow her powder and Mickie quickly did the same. "With your knowledge we may go in safety. With your grace we may speak of benevolence."

They both opened their eyes. At first it didn't' seem like it had worked and Mickie was about to say that out loud when the smell of smoke reached her nostrils. "Is it…is it burning?"

"I don't think…oh my god!" Gail rolled back and Mickie quickly backed up as well, the smoke becoming clearer and clearer until a huge flame shot straight up from the square of twine, only lasting for a few seconds but managing to burn a huge hole in the ceiling while it did. The smoke alarm started going off and Bryan came running in, asking them what the hell was going on. Neither one could answer him. Gail was too busy coughing from the smoke that had gotten into her lungs and Mickie was staring wide eyed at the symbol that was burned into twine. It looked like a giant T with an X behind it about halfway down it. "What the HELL is that?"

Nobody could give her an answer. Gail was too busy going to the windows and opening them to let in some air and Bryan was busy asking his own questions. So Mickie's eyes stayed glued to the symbol, a very very bad feeling forming in the pit of her stomach. Whatever the hell that was, it was definitely far from good. That was a guarantee.

…

Maria could feel several pairs of hands touching her but her eyelids felt so heavy that it took her an extremely long time to open them. Once they were open it took another few minutes for her to even regain her bearings. It didn't help that it was dark wherever it is she was. The only light around her came from a single torch that one of the men was holding. There seemed to be at least four or five of them but she could easily be wrong there.

"HELP!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. She started trying to move so she could find some way of escaping but she couldn't. She was tied down so tightly to something that it felt like the circulation was getting cut off in her limbs. "HELP ME PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

"Fuck! Someone fucking gag her!" Bradshaw said gruffly.

"You gag her, you're closer!" a deep voice replied.

"Why wasn't she gagged to begin with?" The man who asked that was closer to Maria's head and she looked at him, barely able to see his face between the darkness and the long curly hair that he had hanging over him. He had grabbed a dirty smelly rag and shoved it deep into her mouth. It tasted like pure oil and she started gagging and trying to somehow force it out of her mouth

"Is she ready?"

"I just gotta make sure these knots are good-"

"Taker's going to get pissed if we make him wait too much longer."

"I know I know.' Maria winced as she felt the rope on her ankles get even tighter. "Got it."

"Good. Now on the count of three. One…two…three!"

All at once they lifted up what she was tied to as she sobbed and tried to somehow get free from her restraints. It was hard for her to even think right now she was so terrified. She knew damn well she had to get the fuck out of there but even if she got untied somehow that wouldn't put her anywhere near out of the woods. For one she didn't know where the hell she was so there was no telling where the exit was and more importantly, she was outnumbered quite heavily. Even if she could somehow try to make a break for it she would easily get caught, which would more than likely make things even worse for her.

They carried her outside and set up the symbol she was tied to so she was faced with a trio of men. One was very short compared to the other two and he was also fatter and holding a gold urn against his chest. The second one was bald and keeping his distance from the other two while scowling; he certainly didn't seem to want to be there. The third one was staring right at her and his stare scared her so bad she started to cry harder. He was wearing a black robe with his hood up; the only reason she could see his face was because he was looking up at her. His eyes were hard, displaying absolutely no emotion whatsoever.

"Are you SURE this one is pure?" the fat man asked in a very high pitched voice. "After the debacle with the LAST one-"

"Calm down Paulie," one of the men said dismissively. "She's pure."

"Do NOT take that tone with me Raven! You're all completely incompetent-"

"I'm not!" Bradshaw said defensively. "And she's pure as fresh fucking snow. Trust me on that one Bearer."

Bearer scowled and looked at the man in the robe, who nodded. Maria was trying to plead with him with her eyes, hoping against hope she could somehow invoke some king of mercy from him. Unfortunately for her, he clearly saw what she was doing and openly laughed at her.

"Such a pretty…pretty…little girl." He reached up and touched her cheek with one finger, which made her shudder violently. "Are you scared? Are you scared of me little girl?"

Maria whimpered and he got up on his toes to lick the tears that were streaming down her face. The feeling of his tongue on her skin made her let out a muffled scream and she started trying to move her head in any direction to get away from it. It felt so disgusting it was making her skin crawl in the worst way.

"Are we going to get on with this or not?" the bald man asked impatiently. "We DON'T have all night you know."

"Boy-"

"Marcus," the bald man sneered defiantly. "_You're_ the one who bitched at us for wasting time but now you're going to stop and play with the sacrifice?"

"Marky's going to kill Glenn," Raven sing songed. He sounded quite happy about it.

Mark seemed to seriously consider going over to Glenn right now and doing just that but ultimately he didn't. Maria wished he had, because that meant his attention stayed focused on her. "Knife," he growled, extending his hand out to Bearer, who quickly handed one over to him.

"Nmpphhh!" Maria tried to scream "no" but it came out completely muffled. She shook her head frantically and tried to somehow plead and beg through her gag. He not only ignored her but he started chanting something under his breath. She couldn't quite hear him because of her own screaming and crying, but what she did manage to catch definitely didn't sound like English. She tried harder and harder to get free from her restraints, rubbing her wrists and ankles raw with rope burn. As he kept chanting her body started to feel hot, almost like it was on fire. And it kept getting hotter and hotter, until finally, as he drug the blade across her throat, her whole body shot up into flames, turning to ash within seconds and her soul being ripped violently into the urn Bearer had opened without her knowing it.


	5. Unwelcome Guests

Paul put the lid back on the urn and tucked it under his arm for safe keeping. It was vibrating slightly like it always did when a new soul was added to the collection. Maria's ashes were down on the ground below the symbol she had been tied to although they wouldn't stay there for too long. The wind was starting to pick up and it wouldn't be long before they were scattered all over the place. The symbol itself was burning now and Paul caught Mark's eyes gazing intently at it. "Admiring your own handy work?" he asked curtly.

Mark ignored him and kept himself deep in his thoughts. The taking of this newest soul had just been to reinforce the strength he had spent centuries gathering. Once upon a time, he had just been a boy dabbling in the black arts for fun. That dabbling had changed everything and now there he stood, one of the most powerful and evil sorcerers that had ever existed. The dabbling had turned into an all consuming need for power and he had gotten more than he could have ever dreamed of. The price had been his humanity but it wasn't a price he regretted. Oh no, he was glad he had paid it. No humanity meant no weakness. He was the Undertaker now, the Lord of Darkness, the leader of the Ministry of Darkness and headed the largest army of demons that could only be rivaled by Satan himself. And in all actuality, he thought himself more powerful than the devil. Dear Satan was trapped in hell, an animal in a little box unable to escape since the day he was cast out of Heaven. Mark on the other hand, had free reign to go where he wanted, when he wanted and he could do whatever the fuck he pleased.

He glanced at the three followers that were useful enough to be more than just faceless soldiers: Raven, Bradshaw and Viscera. Demons that looked entirely human. Contrary to popular belief, not every demon had slime or horns or whatever. Some were completely human looking and that was perfect for some of things that needed to be done. This plane of existence was completely infested with humans and unfortunately, up until this point, the humans proved to be quite resilient.

"Do we take it down boss?" Bradshaw asked. He was referring to the symbol.

"No. Leave it. I want it seen."

"Seen? Who will see it out here?" Raven asked incredulously. By nature he wasn't a follower so he had the tendency to open his big fat mouth and say shit he was lucky he didn't get killed for. Not that he would truly care if they did kill him really. He was infamous for being a miserable bastard and he made a lot of people's lives hell so they could "feel his pain". "We're in the middle of-HEY! You fucking galoot!" He glared at Viscera, who had smacked him upside the head. "You fucking want to go?"

Viscera grunted in response.

"If there is ANY going I will eviscerate the both of you myself!" Paul said sharply. "You understand me?"

Raven went to make a smart assed remark to that but Mark gave him such a murderous glare that even he shut his mouth at the sight of it. "Go to your posts," he ordered. "Gather the forces and wait for my command." He grabbed on to Raven's ear and yanked him in close. "Key word there is _wait._" He practically hissed that last word. "You understand me? You try ANYTHING funny and I will string you up by your insides and feed you to my hounds. You understand me?"

"Completely," Raven replied. His expression and voice was flat although Mark knew damn well that didn't match how he was really feeling.

"You better." Mark let him go and off the trio went, Paul shaking his head at them as they did so.

"Why do you put up with him?" he asked. "He's insufferable."

"He has his uses," Mark replied curtly. He glanced over at Glenn, who was setting the grass on fire for no other reason to be an annoying shit. Once upon a time he had been human, or at least they all thought he had been. A spell though had brought the fire demon out in him though and Mark had been using him to his advantage ever since. "Kane?"

Glenn didn't acknowledge his demon name being used. He just kept right on setting the grass on fire, staring at it with a scowl on his face.

"Kane." Mark repeated himself more sharply.

"You're so sure this will work," Glenn said, chuckling lowly. "This plan of yours. You're just SO sure it's going to work-"

"It will," Mark said sharply. "It'll be easy."

"It's been attempted."

"By beings who don't even have a _fraction_ of the power I do." Mark took a step towards him, Bearer right on his heels. "They were all disorganized and weak. This will be different. The power is there, the-"

"Organization is there?" Glenn finished that sentence for him and then snorted. "You've got the likes of Raven serving you-"

"He's annoying but not stupid. He knows where he needs to stand at the end of the day."

Glenn kept right on going as if he hadn't heard him. "Then there's the Horsemen. You think for one fucking second you can trust the four fucking horsemen of the apocalypse?"

"We've stood by them before. Just recently, in case you forgot."

"That suited THEM there was no reason for them to turn on us! Asking them to help wipe humanity off the earth and then play second fiddle-"

"Believe me baby brother, I know damn well they're not interested in playing second fiddle," Mark interrupted. "And they know I know that. It's all been arranged quit fucking worrying about it. You've got work to do."

"What kind of work?" Glenn asked sullenly.

"Track down Famine."

"Why can't you do it?"

"Just DO it you little brat!" Mark's patience was at its end. He only put up with Glenn's behavior because they were family. Anyone else would have found themselves on the wrong end of his wrath. "Get him and get back here by tomorrow night. Understand?"

Glenn scowled and reluctantly raised his arms up, allowing his body to engulf itself in flames and disappear into thin air with a loud bang. Mark and Paul shared a look before each of them going their own way without another word. Enough time had been wasted with Glenn. There were three other horsemen to track down and only one day to do it.

…

Downtown was an absolute mess. The police had tried to block off the area and had gotten attacked by the demons for their troubles. So now the streets were littered with the dead and injured as the demons themselves busted the windows to the stores and restaurants, some of them doing some serious looting and others starting fires in them, seemingly just for the hell of it.

"What the hell are these things?" Jay asked as he, Amy and Steve kept themselves as hidden as possible. The demons were burnt orange in color and their skin had small craters in it and looked like it was stretched too tightly over them. Small puffs of red hair were sticking up from their scalps and they apparently fancied themselves to be bikers because they were not only dressed like it but some were riding around on motorcycles.

"Hellions," Steve replied. "Demon biker gang."

"Demon biker gang….now why do those words just not go together?" Amy was trying to lighten the mood slightly but it wasn't working too well.

"Usually they go the sticks and shit," Steve went on. "More vulnerable places. Bigger cities like this…something's set them off."

"Maybe they figured out there's better shopping here," Jay said.

Steve just gave Jay a glare and Amy decided to try to take control of the conversation so Steve wasn't tempted to slap Jay. "So are we supposed to kill ALL of these things? Because you know, we're kind of outnumbered here." From their spot she could see at least a half dozen of them and she knew damn well there was more than that. There was absolutely no way they could just charge in swinging. That would just lead to a horrible and painful death.

Steve thought it over for a moment. "I think I have an idea." He took off without another word and Jay and Amy scrambled to keep up. They had to stick to the alleys to move around and Amy wasn't sure how Steve knew where the hell he was going. She just felt completely lost at the moment.

The roar of a motorcycle made her ears ring and she turned her head back to see one of the demons on a bike was coming right at them. "SHIT!" On pure panic and instinct she blindly reached down and grabbed a brick that was laying on the ground and chucked it at the demon as hard as she could. It bounced off its forehead and he lost control of its bike, crashing and rolling until it came to a stop just by her feet.

"Daaaamn Amy," Jay said in amazement as she took advantage of the situation and brought her knife down into the demon's chest. "Freaking beast you are."

Amy let a small grin. "Thanks. I try."

"Hey! Amy! Jackass! Let's move it!"

Jay looked ready to object to being called "jackass" but Amy elbowed him in the ribs to shut him up and dragged him along. "Where are we even going?" he asked with a whine.

"Shuddup and you'll find out," Steve replied.

Jay made a face at Steve behind his back and Amy just shook her head at the both of them and made sure to keep right up with Steve. He ended up leading them to the gun store and immediately she liked where this plan was heading.

"You know you're a redneck when-"

"Finish that sentence and I'll shoot ya," Steve threatened. He lead them in through the back door and up to the front of the store, only to find four demons looting the place. "Ah hell."

The demons looked up at them and of course their eyes all went to Amy. This was the problem with being a female demon hunter. More often than not, the demons seemed to want a piece of her there was no way in hell she would ever give them. "Hello pretty…" One of the demons licked his lips and leered at her obnoxiously.

"Aw, you think I'm pretty?" Jay asked. He pretended to swoon and that distracted the demon long enough for Steve to throw one of his daggers at it. The blade buried itself into its throat and it collapsed down to the ground, clutching it's throat while it's blood poured out of it. The other three demons let out a screech that made Amy's hair stand up entirely on end and charged them wildly. Steve charged right back at them and hit the biggest one with a shoulder tackle. The smallest one went at Jay with a tire iron which left Amy with the one holding a chain.

"Here pretty pretty pretty…"

"Ugh." Amy quickly ducked the chain as it came at her head and then jumped up when the demon tried to swipe her feet out from under her. "Word of advice?" She grabbed the hand the demon was holding the chain in and drove her elbow hard into its arm to make it drop it. "Get a new opening line. Human girls DON'T like that one." She tried to drive her elbow into its face but it swiped its claws in her face and she cried out in pain. Blood dripped from the five claw marks that went down the side of her face and a hard kick sent her crashing to the ground.

"Amy!"

She heard Jay call out her name but she couldn't acknowledge him in the slightest. She was too busy trying to avoid the kicks that were being rained down on her. One connected pretty hard with her ribs and took the air right out of her while another hit her shoulder. Another one was about to connect with her face but she blindly shot out her fist and nailed the thing in the groin. It doubled over in pain and she quickly grabbed the chain it had been trying to hit her with and wrapped it around its neck as she jumped up on to its back. It let out a strangle cry and started trying to get her off. She tightened her grip and wrapped her legs around its waist as well, trying her best to choke the thing out.

"Amy! Hold it still!"

Amy stole a glance at Jay and screamed. He had managed to kill his demon and had grabbed a gun, loaded it up and was pointing it at the demon. "Holy FUCK!" Past experiences with Jay's aim made her let the demon go and run for cover. Jay took a shot and missed by a mile. The second shot clipped the demon's ear. He went for a third shot but Steve snatched the gun out of his hands and fired it instead, managing to shoot the demon in the head without really trying.

"What the HELL were you thinking boy?" Steve grabbed Jay by the shirt and started shaking him around. "Were you trying to kill us all?'

"I was trying to help!" Jay replied.

"Well you could have KILLED us!" Steve slapped him upside the head and looked at Amy. "You okay?"

She nodded. "I'm fine."

"Good. Help me grab guns. And YOU-" he gave Jay an angry look "don't touch ANYTHING."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know. But if you touch this shit I'll give you an ass kicking you'll NEVER forget!"

…

Adam came back from the bathroom to see that what he had been watching had been interrupted with footage of Steve's car being driven down the street and Steve and Amy leaning out the windows shooting at the demons raising hell. He blinked and then rubbed his eyes. No, he was not seeing things. "Woooow…." That was all that could really be said on the matter.

…

Jeff was asleep until he heard something moving around downstairs in his living room. Immediately his eyes opened and he sat up, listening as hard as he could and barely even breathing. He could hear hushed voices talking back and forth but couldn't even make out what they were saying. Very carefully he slipped out of bed and grabbed his nearest weapon, which was a small battle axe. He gripped the handle extra tight and tip toed out of his room and down the stairs, figuring it was either a demon or a burglar. The reality of it was though, it was something much worse. It was the last person he wanted to see with someone he didn't even know. "What are YOU doing here?"

Matt looked up at him and sighed. "We have to talk."


	6. Famine

_Jeff pressed his forehead against the window as he stared at the world outside the small cramped apartment he and Matt were holed up in now. It was the middle of July and the only source of relief they had from the heat were the three fans that were blowing full blast. They had no air conditioning and Jeff wanted to open the windows so badly, or better yet, go outside and play in the water with all the other kids. Being cramped up in this sweatbox was making him feel sick. His whole body was soaked in sweat and no deodorant in the world could cover up the body odor that was coming off him and Matt. And to make matters worse, the apartment was old and not very clean, so the air was not only heavy but dusty as well, which made it pretty much impossible to breathe._

"_Why can't we at least open the windows?" he asked. He looked back at Matt, who was approaching him with two giant wooden staffs in his hands. Even if it did nothing to cool the place down some fresh air would come in and he wouldn't feel like he was dying._

"_Too noisy," Matt replied. "They'll distract us." He handed one of the staffs to Jeff. "Now come on. We have to get started."_

"_But it's too hot!" Jeff protested. He looked down at the weapon hatefully. Matt had started training him with weapons not too long ago and so far there hadn't been much progress at all. The staff was about as big as he was so he had major trouble even handling it. His upper body strength was pretty much nonexistent so there was no strength in his hits, with or without a weapon. And there was absolutely no desire on his part to do any of this. He didn't want to fight demons or vampires or anything else that Matt was obsessed with destroying. He just wanted his normal life back. "Can't we-WAHH!" Matt whacked him in the stomach and then right upside the head with his staff. The blows knocked him down to the ground and he just laid there in a heap, his head hurting so badly that he wanted to cry._

"_Come on get up!" Matt said impatiently. "Get up you'll fucking DIE if you keep this shit up! You hear me? You don't fight, you die!"_

Jeff shook his head. The tension had rose to unbearable levels already. The hand that wasn't holding the axe was clenched so tightly in a fist that his fingernails were digging deep into his palm. Matt was standing there as calmly as can be and the blonde girl with him looked appropriately uncomfortable. "no we don't. I've said everything I've ever needed to say last time. Now get out." He wasn't even going to ask Matt how he had found him. He knew damn well that his dear brother had his ways.

Matt refused to move. "We need to talk," he repeated calmly.

"I don't want to hear it."

"I don't care."

Jeff scowled. Of course Matt didn't care. Matt never cared. It had always been about the way Matt saw things and everyone else's view, opinion and actual facts be damned. Even when they had been kids it had been that way. At least back then though he tried to pretend it wasn't like that.

"Something's happening." Matt was mistaking his silence for accepting defeat. "Something big."

"So? Go take care of it yourself. That shit's not my problem." He rested his axe up on his shoulder, his grip refusing to relax on the handle.

"Jeff this isn't a joke. The shit that's been going on here has been happening other places. I don't know what it is, but I know I need your help."

"And I'm saying no. Now take-" he stopped and looked at the blonde woman for her name.

"Ashley," she said.

"-Ashley and go. Just go."

"No," Matt refused yet again. His brown eyes were narrowed in anger and Jeff knew that it was only a matter of time before things turned physical. That's how things had ended last time. Jeff's eye had stayed swollen for a week and Matt's nose and lip had been busted up.

"Matt come on," Ashley said meekly. "He-" The glare that Matt sent her made her cringe and not finish that sentence. That served to raise Jeff's ire even more. He knew that look all too well. Matt had given it to him and Amy on numerous occasions in an effort to keep them in line. It was a look that he grew to despise with a fiery passion.

"What exactly was your plan here Matt? Did you come here planning on forcing me to join you? Was that it?" Matt wasn't answering the question so Jeff did it for him. "Yeah, that's what I thought. You forced me into this to begin with, you did it again when I tried to go to college and now you want to do it again. Nice Matt. Fucking nice."

"Innocent people-"

"Are going to die? Oh please." Jeff chuckled bitterly. "Don't give me that shit. You don't care about the innocent people. You never did. This is still about you wanting revenge."

"They all deserve to die Jeff," Matt said matter of factly. "Every last one of them."

"Maybe they do but I'm done with it. It didn't solve anything for me. It never did."

"They took our parents from us."

"Yeah I know. And you know what? Those two vamps have been dust for years now. You killed them yourself. All this other stuff you insist on fighting? It has nothing to do with that."

"Why are we even having this conversation?" This not going the way Matt wanted to was driving him crazy and Jeff knew it. "What the hell is the point?"

"Believe me, I ask myself that question a lot. Now get out."

A long tense silence followed. Matt and Jeff glared at each other while Ashley slowly backed up towards the door. For a brief second, Matt seemed like he was going to back down but then he grabbed at Jeff and tried to get the axe out of his hand. Jeff was expecting that though. He knew his brother all too well and knew that despite all his talk about never underestimating an opponent, he still saw Jeff as the little brother he could just bully around. Jeff proved just how wrong he was about that by kneeing Matt in the groin and hitting him right in the face with the blunt end of the axe. It was sooo tempting to just swing the axe and take Matt's head right off but he wasn't going to do that unless he had to. He was a lot of things but a willing killer was not one of them.

"You've got one chance," Jeff growled as Matt scrambled back up to his feet. "You get out now or I take you out of here in pieces. I don't care which."

Matt eyed him angrily, his pride definitely wounded by this turn of events. "This isn't over," he promised.

"For your sake, it better be." Jeff was imagining it now. Matt coming back yet again and him reaching his true breaking point and gleefully hacking his own brother into tiny pieces. It should have disturbed him that he was thinking like that but it didn't. In fact, he wanted to do it so badly that he could taste it. Before he could raise his weapon though Matt had stormed out and Ashley quickly followed him, shooting Jeff a very apologetic look before closing the door behind her.

…

The shackle around Serena Deeb's neck was so tight that she could barely even breathe. She looked around at her surroundings, too weak to even cry about it anymore. She was trapped in some cold dark basement, her body naked and weak with malnutrition. It literally felt like she was trapped in some horror movie. This was real though. As horrifying as her situation was, no amount of wishing would turn it into a dream. This was her reality and she knew she was going to die down in this room, alone, afraid and unable to do a damn thing to stop it.

The tears started now but she didn't try to wipe them away. What was the point? Everything had gone so badly to hell. The person she had thought had been her town's savior was now her killer. And nobody would even care. He had the entire town under his control and if he said she needed to die? That settled the matter. They would let him kill her or even do it themselves if he ordered it.

_One month ago_

"_Serena? Serena? Darling? Where are you?"_

_Serena ignored her mother in favor of continuing to rip up grass and shoving it into her mouth. If she had been in her right state of mind she would have been totally disgusted with herself but right now she couldn't even begin to care. It had been days since she had ate anything and she was desperate. A horrible famine had hit them and there was no explanation for it. All the crops that were growing and all the produce in the grocery stores got rotten and died overnight. Everything else had been filled with maggots and worms, making it totally uneatable. Nobody could explain it and the ones that tried to leave either never came back or somehow ended up back in town dead. Paranoia and fear were running rampant. The once peaceful and friendly community was threatening to rip itself apart by the seams._

"_Serena! Sweetheart no!" Her mother ran outside and pulled her up off the ground. "You can't-"_

"_Let GO of me!" She elbowed her mom in the ribs and took off running as fast as she could. She didn't give a damn what her mother said. She was going to eat whatever it was she could get her hands on before she went mad with hunger._

Her stomach growled loudly and she clutched at it, wincing how painful it was even to do that. Her body was essentially eating itself to try to stay alive. If she had thought she had been hungry when she had been eating the grass, it was nothing compared to now.

_She had lost track of how long she had been eating the grass. Her jeans and mouth were stained green but that wasn't about to deter her. She needed to eat. There was still no food and people were starting to die. She had to sustain herself somehow._

"_Little one…"_

_She froze in mid-bite and looked around, a huge feeling of paranoia rising inside of her. "Who's there?" She didn't get an answer. "Who's there?" she asked yet again, forcing her voice to be stronger this time._

"_Someone you need." Out from behind a tree stepped a man. While young looking, he was definitely older than she was. He had a whole bunch of tattoos on his arms and his tongue was flicking at his lip ring playfully. He smirked as she backed up a bit, not bothered by it at all. He just kept approaching her, eventually kneeling down and offering her a nice red apple. Her eyes widened in shock. It was the first fresh food she had seen in so long. "How-"_

"_Never mind that." He handed her the apple and petted her hair affectionately. "Just eat up. We've got work to do."_

His name she would discover later on, was Phil Brooks. And he took over the town within a manner of days. It wasn't hard for him to do at all. He had the limited supply of food and everyone was willing to do anything he wanted to get some, herself included. He actually took a special interest in her, which thrilled her to no end. For a period of time there had been nothing she wouldn't do for him. He was sweet and charismatic and charming…that was what she thought anyway. It was what she wanted to think and it took her awhile to see past it.

"_This town is suffering from a famine," Phil said, looking all across the sea of captivated people in front of him. He had called another meeting in town hall so he could speak to everyone on the food matter. He was getting food to them yes but it still wasn't enough. People were still hungry. "You knew that of course. You learned that the hard way. But what you all don't realize is that the famine isn't just related to the food. You people have been suffering from a famine of morals for YEARS now."_

_Serena looked over at Luke Gallows and Joey Mercury, the other two people that Phil kept close to him. She didn't really know Joey but Luke she had known since elementary school._

"_A voice spoke to me last night," Phil continued on, the volume of his voice dropping down so people had no choice but to listen more closely. "In my dreams it spoke to me. And it told me about all your demons. The drinking, the smoking, the promiscuous sex, the gambling and everything else you people have been participating in. The higher power that spoke to me wants to punish you for your sins. You deserve to be punished." He slowly shook his head. "But unlike that voice, I want to offer you salvation before you die. I want to give you a chance to turn your miserable lives around before you burn yourselves away" He smirked as the people in front of him sat up a little straighter and stared at him with wide eyes. "Follow me, and I will lead you to your salvation."_

And follow them they did. Anything he said, they did. He wasn't one to waste time so out went the temptations and the "main sinners" who would lead the rest of them astray. Alcohol was banned, bars and clubs were burned to the ground and the people who worked for them were "cast out", which was the nice way of saying that they were tied up to posts and burned alive. The same fate was met for drugs, prescription or not, and their users. The doctors that prescribed the drugs were taken away too because they fed the addiction that polluted the mind and body. Anyone in prison was quickly gotten rid of of course. Hookers, strippers, unwed mothers and their baby daddies: the list started to grow at a startling rate. The homeless went next because "they fueled laziness". A gay man ended up getting on his wrong side somehow so there went that group. The Jews met their fate not long after. It was at this point Serena was having serious doubts about all of this. Phil kept going on and on about salvation yet none seemed to be in sight. All they were doing was killing people and none of them truly deserved it (beyond some of the convicts anyway). She tried to repress her feelings about it but eventually she couldn't. So she turned to her mother, thinking that she could trust her. She learned how wrong she was when her mom told Phil about what she said and Phil threw her down here so she could rot.

"Sereeeeenaaaaa. Oh Sereeeeenaaaa."

A chill went through Serena's body as Phil said her name. He was coming down the stairs now, that all too familiar smirk planted on his face. She shivered violently and shrank back, just wanting to make herself as small as possible even though it wouldn't do a bit of good.

"Oh what's the matter Serena?" Phil plopped down in front of her, crossing his legs Indian style. "Are you not happy to see me?" He reached out and touched her with the back of his hand, tsking softly as she tried to shrink back more. "You know, there was a time where you were so happy to see me. You loved me Serena. You loved me with the purest love you could muster." His face suddenly twisted into a scowl and he grabbed her hair and yanked on it hard. "And now you turned against me…" He yanked on her hair yet again, a smile spreading across his face as she yelped in pain. "You betrayed me. I offered you salvation and you betrayed me. Do you have any idea how it feels?" He let out a long breath and slowly shook his head. "I thought you were different than the rest. Not some mindless sheep that went along with the crowd. You were special to me."

"P-p-please," she said weakly. "I-"

He put his hand over her mouth to silence her. "And then you speak out against me. How could you do that Serena? Once one starts speaking out against me, the sheep switch sides and everything I work for will be lost. And then you're all damned. Is that what you wanted? Because without me-"

"Would you _stop_ already? God damn, what is it with you and your savior complex? You need to talk to someone about that. It's not healthy."

Phil scowled and looked back at a tall bald man that was now in the room. Serena blinked in shock. Who was this guy and how did he get in? She didn't remember hearing or seeing him enter the room.

"Kane," Phil said with a sneer.

"Famine…Famine Famine Famine…so what is this little agenda of yours? Secretly come to town, starve these people, drive them to the brink of insanity and then offer "salvation", which we all know is turning them into a cult and ultimately destroying them all?"

"And what if it is?" Phil asked. "You have a problem with that?"

"Don't you think it's overplayed? You've only done it a thousand times."

"No I don't actually. You just think it is because you're too big and dumb to understand the subtlety of what I do." Phil stood up and stretched lazily, ignoring Serena's mass confusion about this whole conversation. "What do you want anyway?"

"It's time."

"Oh yeah? Well shit, that's just fucking fantastic." It was hard to tell whether he meant that or not. "Really, I'm glad." He reached out and patted Kane's shoulder. "It's about time we got this show on the road."

Kane scowled angrily. "Don't touch me."

"What if I want to?" Phil tightened his grip and got right in Kane's face. "What are you going to do about it then? Huh?"

The scowl on Kane's face clearly showed that he wanted to do something about it but something stopped him. Phil smirked victoriously and let him go. "Serena, my dear, it looks like our time here is being cut short." He looked at her and shook his head sadly. "It sucks my dear."

She could barely even look up at him. She didn't have the strength to hold her head up for more than a few seconds.

"But before I go, I want to give you one last parting gift." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the biggest hunting knife she had ever seen in her life. If she would have had any strength left at all she would have screamed bloody murder. "I mean, I have to leave _something_ for my remaining _faithful_ followers to feed the dogs with. They deserve the very best meat after all…"

"Oh fucking hell." Kane shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. This was going to take awhile.


	7. Pestilence

"So uh, what was the deal with the shit I saw on the news?" Adam asked as he unwrapped his roast beef sandwich. Jay, Amy and Steve had picked up some Arby's on the way back home, which was something Adam was really grateful for. He had been craving their curly fries like crazy lately.

"What shit you saw on the news?" Amy asked. She had a roast beef sandwich as well but got potato cakes instead of curly fries.

"Fucking Steve's car driving down the road and him and you sticking out the windows and shooting the demons."

Jay's entire face lit up. "Oh fuck that made the news? Did you see me on there? I was driving the car did you see me?" When Adam didn't answer fast enough for his liking, he reached over and grabbed his arm so he could start shaking him. "Dude, did you see me or what?"

"Dude, get off me!" Adam slapped Jay's hand and pushed him away. "I didn't see you and truth be told I'm glad I didn't. That means everyone else was spared from seeing your hideous mug too."

"Oh fuck you!" Jay reached back over and punched Adam's arm as hard as he could. "Bastard. My mug is much better than yours."

"Is not."

"Is too."

"Is not."

"Is-"

"Shuddup the both of you," Steve snapped. He had his eyes glued to the television, which was playing an NCIS rerun. Even though he had seen pretty much every episode multiple times, he still watched every episode with rapt attention. Daring to talk through any part of it was risky and having a stupid fight like the one Adam and Jay were having was just a sin in the eyes of Steve.

"He started it," Jay quickly claimed, pointing his finger at Adam.

Adam snorted and rolled his eyes. "Really Jay? That's the way you're going to be?"

"Dude you started it and you know it," Jay snapped. "Just accept that you-OW!" Steve just took his phone and chucked it at Jay, making it bounce off the younger man's head. "Dude! That was not-" He saw the look Steve was giving him and wisely chose to shut his mouth.

Adam chuckled a bit to himself and took a drink of his Diet Mountain Dew. There was a few minutes of them watching the show in peace and then Chris had to break it by reaching over and trying to steal some of his fries. "Hey!" he slapped Chris's hand hard and glared at him. "You have your own!"

"But I almost ate them all," Chris replied. He showed off his diminished amount of fries, expecting it to get some sympathy. None was to be had though. Not from Adam anyway.

"That's not my problem dude."

"How about I make it your problem?"

"How about I bitch slap you into oblivion?"

Steve growled and chucked Amy's phone in their general direction. It actually was heading towards Adam's face but he got his hands up and swatted it away, actually managing to deflect it square into Chris's face.

"Oh that's nice," Amy said as Chris howled in pain. "Really that's just really really nice you guys. Toss MY phone around like it's a god damn weapon. I appreciate that guys."

"Sorry," Adam said. He grabbed her phone and gave it back. "Really."

"Oh I'm sure you are," she muttered somewhat sarcastically. She put her phone into the safety that was her pocket just as the doorbell rang. "I've got it."

Steve threw his hands up in exasperation. "Can't I fucking watch this in peace for once?" He stared at the retreating Amy for a moment before looking at the three blondes. "_Well_? Can I?"

"…No?" Jay said hesitantly.

Steve gave him a death glare just as Amy came back in the room with Mickie, who had a worried look on her face. "Uh oh," Adam said. "What's the matter?"

Mickie sighed as Amy shut off the TV and silenced Steve's protest with a glare. "I think we might have a problem…"

…

Kelly Kelly hunched over and clutched at her stomach with one hand as she coughed into the other hand. Her body was so weak that halfway through her coughing fit she just kind of collapsed sideways, her upper body going partly off the hospital bed she had been stuck in for two days now. Five days ago she had come down to Tampa to stay with her best friend Tiffany, who had just broken up with her boyfriend Drew McIntyre and needed some serious moral support as she got settled down in her new apartment. Kelly herself had just gone through a breakup with her boyfriend Justin and that, along with a few really embarrassing auditions that took place after she boldly stated she was going to go from her swimsuit modeling to acting, had helped to make staying in Tampa with Tiffany seem even more tempting than it would have been otherwise. Within a day of arriving though, both she and Tiffany started feeling sick. At first they didn't think much of it. They figured something they had ate hadn't agreed with them. Two days later though, they both had a hundred and three degree fevers and huge red, pus filled sours had covered their bodies, which had freaked them the fuck out.

It wasn't even just them though. The hospital they were at had tons of people that had the same symptoms they did. A bunch of them had even died but Kelly didn't know that. She had no idea about the mass amount of people that had been dying in the very same hospital she and Tiffany were staying out. She hadn't been watching the news and hearing them say it was a "plague outbreak" and hearing all the advice they were giving to people on how to not get infected. If she would have heard that, she would have just freaked out completely. As it was, she was already heading down that path anyway.

"Tiff?" She forced herself to stop coughing long enough to call out for her friend. The instant she started to hold her coughs back her lungs started to burn and her eyes watered uncontrollably. She wanted to cough she NEEDED to cough but she was still trying to hold it back. "Tiff are you-" she couldn't finish the sentence. A horrible tickle rose up in the back of her throat and she started coughing once more. She hung her head completely over the side of the bed, her entire body shaking with the force of her coughing. She wheezed and coughed and gagged for several long minutes before finally spitting out a huge mouthful of blood. "Oh God…" She slowly started to push herself back up into a sitting position but she only got herself about an inch up before collapsing once more. She just couldn't do it. Her arms felt too weak and rubbery and she just did not have enough energy to fight through it and force her body anywhere.

"Oh now what are you doing? I've told you over and over and over again you have to stay put."

Kelly didn't even try to look up at the owner of that voice. It was just Nurse McCool, who had been the main one taking care of her and Tiffany. "Help me…"

"What do you think we've been trying to do?" McCool asked as she walked over and laid Kelly back down in her bed. "You're not helping yourself by trying to escape here."

"I didn't…I just…" Kelly's head fell to the side and she just went quiet. There was no point in even trying to defend herself. It would fall on deaf ears anyway. Crying weakly she looked over at Tiffany. Her friend was curled up in the fetal position and sweating so much that her body and the sheets on the bed were drenched in it.

"Ick," Nurse McCool said as she too stared at the state Tiffany was in. "Now that is just gross." She reached out with one gloved hand and moved Tiffany's hair out of her face so she could see the sores that had covered the entire side of her face. The majority of them looked like they were ready to burst and McCool tsked softly. "Now that is just disgusting." She leaned over so she could try to look Tiffany in the eyes. "You're in a lot of pain aren't you?"

Tiffany couldn't even really answer her. She just let out a small whimper and Nurse McCool seemed to just take that as a yes.

"Well then, we should just end your suffering, now shouldn't we?" McCool's voice was sickeningly sweet and Kelly felt a small shudder go through her. There was something really off about this situation and she wanted to call out for someone else to come into the room and get McCool out of there.

"What are you-"

McCool ignored Kelly's unfinished question and pressed her hand on to Tiffany's forehead. Tiffany let out a low whimper as her body began to seizure wildly. Kelly's eyes widened in shock as blood began to come up through out of her mouth and out her eyes, nose and ears. "Oh god," Kelly gasped. "Oh god oh god oh god…HELP! Somebody-"

"Sssshhh!" McCool slapped a hand over Kelly's mouth and shook her head. "Don't do that sweetie. You don't want to do that."

Kelly whimpered as she stared up at the tall blonde nurse. Gone was the rather cool indifference she normally displayed. Her gaze was filled with pure contempt and Kelly whimpered again before biting on her hand in an attempt to get her to let go so she could scream for help again. She was too weak to do any damage though. McCool simply knocked her in the face and put her hand on her forehead just like she had done with Tiffany.

"Come on, die you little cunt…"

Kelly's body began to jerk uncontrollably and blood filled her lungs and throat so fast it felt like she was drowning in it. She wanted to cough and spit it all out but she couldn't. She no longer had any control of her body. Her mind screamed in terror as she tasted her own blood inside her mouth and felt it pour from her nose and eyes. So much of it…there was just so much of it. The back of her throat was so full of it that she couldn't even begin to take a breath and there was even more in her chest, pushing down on her lungs like a bunch of weights. She attempted one last cry for help but all that escaped her lips was a gurgled whine. The instant it died her body gave out and Nurse McCool just watched her die with a sick satisfied look on her face.

…

"Are you SURE this was the symbol that appeared?" Steve asked for the sixth time in the span of a minute. His determination to watch NCIS was completely forgotten in favor of totally wigging out about the symbol Mickie had just drawn on a piece of paper for them.

Mickie nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"She was sure the first five times you asked her," Chris pointed out. "I don't think the answer is going to change this time." That got him a nice hard slap to the back of the head. "Ow!" He gave Steve an unhappy glare. "You need to see someone about your abusive ways dude. Seriously, I think you have a problem."

Steve didn't really find that very funny. "This is serious you idiot. You know what this is?" He pointed to the symbol Mickie had drawn.

"…The letter T?" Jay guessed. Adam and Amy both gave him a look. If ever there was a time that Steve was just going to kill him for his peanut gallery style comments, this seemed like it was going to be it.

"It's the symbol of the Undertaker," Steve explained. Judging by his voice, Adam knew that was supposed to be a big scary revelation. Only issue was, Mickie was the only one who seemed to remotely recognize the name. "The Undertaker," Steve repeated. "Lord of Darkness? Leader of the Ministry of Darkness? The fucking oldest god damn sorcerer in the fucking universe and the fucking leader of the biggest army of demons?" More blank stares. "Are you ALL complete IDIOTS?"

Adam put up his hands and looked as innocent as possible. "Dude, I'm a civilian. It's not my fault I don't know this shit."

"And who the fuck cares who or what the shit is?" Jay asked. "As long as it goes down-"

"That's fucking fine for the run of the mill vamps and demons," Steve interrupted. "But this a fuck of a lot more serious." He pointed to the symbol once more. "The Undertaker was born human-or at least that's how the story goes. He got in deep with the black arts and he got completely power hungry, straight up giving up his humanity to become even more powerful. He got his little Ministry of Darkness together and they built his army."

"And how exactly did they do that?" Chris asked. "Most of the demons and shit I've met are too stupid to even-"

"They fall in line when someone like Taker comes knocking on their door," Steve interrupted. "Plus he can fucking travel dimensions and shit and he's fucking taken over a shit ton of them, taking the demons and making the ones he didn't kill join him."

"Yikes," Mickie said under her breath. "So…what's he up to now? I mean clearly he's got something to do with this shit."

"You think?" Amy asked somewhat sarcastically.

Mickie gave her a little glare for that but kept her mouth firmly shut.

Steve shook his head. "I don't fucking know but I'm gonna go find out." He grabbed the piece of paper that had the symbol on it and headed for the door.

"Don't you need-" Amy winced as he slammed the door shut behind him "-help?"

"Apparently he don't," Chris observed. He eyed what was left of Steve's food and quickly snagged it. "Dibs bitches."

Adam stared at him incredulously. "Is that all you care about?"

"Hey man, it's all about perspective. Simple things are what really matter in life."

…

Florida was one of the places Mark hated with a violent passion. The sun, the sand, the people…it was one of the many places that disgusted him even more than this mortal world usually did yet here he was, walking through one of its hospitals. The only real comfort he had was the sight of all the dying people around him. It amused him to hear their cries for help and watch as they suffered.

The doctors and nurses that he passed didn't even notice he was there. They were desperately trying to attend to their patients but were failing because they were getting sick themselves. He actually stepped over a couple of them before coming face to face with the woman he had been looking for. "Ah, Pestilence. You look…stunning."

The tall, stick thin woman rolled her eyes and gave him an irritated look. "How many times do I have to tell you? It's Michelle now." She smirked as he stepped closer and eyed the outfit she was in. "Or Nurse McCool if you play your cards right."

He smirked and slowly ran his hand down the front of her body. "Have I ever told you how ridiculous I find this new name of yours to be?"

"You try being called fucking "Pestilence" for as long as I did and tell me you wouldn't go for a name change," she snapped. She swatted his hand away in irritation but he put it right back on, just daring her to do something about it. "Fucking Famine stand there and calls me "Pesty"….stupid little twerp. Fucking need to wring his neck."

Mark chuckled lowly. "You'll have your chance soon enough." He leaned down and put his face not even an inch from hers. "It's time."

"Oh yeah?" Her eyebrows went up and she smirked.

"Mhmm."

"Lovely." She grabbed a handful of his dark hair and captured his lips in a rough kiss.


	8. War

Ashley tried her best to just ignore the fury that was radiating off Matt in waves. They had driven around for a very long time before finally pulling over and going into a graveyard. Not a single word had been said the entire time. Matt refused to speak and Ashley wasn't stupid enough to try. She had been with Matt long enough to know when to keep her mouth shut. He was going to need to kill some stuff before he became remotely tolerable so she would stand back and let him do it. As she was waiting, she was going to try to forget how horribly awkward she had felt when she and Matt had been at Jeff's. She herself had had more than one ugly confrontation with a family member but the mood between Jeff and Matt had been beyond anything she had ever seen between two people. There was clearly a bad history between the two, though what it all was she didn't know. It wasn't like Matt would ever tell her. He never told her anything unless she needed to know it, and even then, that was if he cared to remember to tell her.

She shivered a bit and folded her arms over her chest as she continued to trail behind Matt. Fucking cemeteries gave her the creeps. Especially at night. It just felt wrong. Part of her just wanted to go back to the car and wait but she didn't want to walk all the way back there by herself. Knowing her luck she would get attacked on the way. So with Matt she stayed, glancing around anxiously, hoping that something would just come along that he could kill so he could blow off steam and they could leave.

Finally Matt came to a complete stop and looked around, an unhappy look clearly written on his face. "It's too quiet," he growled.

_Isn't that a good thing?_ Ashley asked to herself. She almost said that out loud but managed to stop herself at the last minute. That wouldn't do anything but cause a fight with him.

He continued to look around, his dark eyes getting angrier and angrier by the second. "Come here Ash," he ordered in a low voice.

She stopped and looked at him uncertainly. "What?"

"I said come here," he repeated, looking less than happy at having to do so.

Her instincts told her not to do it. Something really did not feel right about the way he was looking at her. He was up to something and it wasn't anything that would be good for her. But despite her instincts screaming at her to do otherwise, she went towards him. Fact of the matter was that if she ran, she was just going to piss him off. And that wasn't something she was stupid enough to do, especially given the fact he was already in a foul mood.

He waited until she was within reach before grabbing her by the wrist and yanking her the rest of the way forward. "Ow!" she said loudly. It had hurt but she exaggerated somewhat to try to get him to cool his tits and not be so rough. Of course though, that went right over his head. Or maybe it didn't and he just tightened his grip to be an asshole. That actually was the more likely option knowing him. "Matt?" Her entire body stiffened as he reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his knives. "What are you doing?"

Matt didn't answer. He just dragged the blade of the knife across the palm of her hand, making her cry out in pain. She tried to yank her hand back the moment he started but his grip was too tight for her to get free of. "Matt!" She started smacking him and trying to push him away with her free hand. "Matt STOP! You fucking lunatic!"

Again he didn't even acknowledge her. He just finished cutting her and then actually started squeezing to get more blood out of the wound. "This should get their attention," he muttered to himself.

Ashley's eyes just about popped out of her head. "Are you kidding me? You're using me as fucking bait?"

"I have to use something don't I?"

"Why not your own blood?"

"I figured yours would be a lot more appealing." Matt looked around once more and his gaze finally settled on a couple of approaching vampires. "Finally."

Ashley's eyes widened and the moment he let her go she clutched her hand and went to hide behind the nearest crypt. Matt went to meet the vampires head on, jumping into the fight with the ruthless abandon he had every single time. She snuck peeks of the fight from her hiding spot but never watched for too long. She had to make sure nothing else smelled her blood and came after her. All Matt's fights looked the same to her anyway. It wasn't like it was on TV or in the movies. She had never really seen all the fancy looking fighting moves that the characters could bust out. Of course, she had only ever really watched Matt fight so maybe she didn't have the best example to go with. Matt wasn't fancy in the very least. He just charged at what was in front of him and his experience and ruthlessness was what he got by on. For him, there was really nothing but all of this. The hunt, the kill-it was all that mattered to him. His own life didn't really matter to him. At least it didn't seem that way to her. He was on the fast track to a short life and he didn't seem to give a damn. The only thing that mattered to him was taking as many vampires and demons as he could before his time officially ran out.

…

Jeff was on the move. He didn't have a clue where he was going but he was moving nonetheless. The confrontation with Matt had left him too angry and wired to even sleep. Part of him wanted to seek Matt out and beat the hell of him for bursting back into his life like this. Another part of him wanted to just run away. Run far away where Matt could never find him this time. And yet another one just wanted to go back home and forget this whole thing ever happened. This mix of emotions always happened when it came to Matt. When he had been a little kid, he had worshipped Matt. There had been nobody cooler or smarter than Matt in his eyes. They had grown up in a very small town in North Carolina called Cameron and given their lack of neighbors, all Jeff really had were Matt and his parents. When they weren't helping their dad with the tobacco or doing whatever chores their mother gave them, they were off in the woods, doing their own thing. They had been happy. It was the only time in Jeff's life that he could look back and say he was truly happy during it.

It was when he was nine that it all had gone completely to hell. Their parents had decided to surprise them with a trip to Raleigh so they could go see a movie. Jeff couldn't even remember what movie it was now. What he did remember was falling asleep as soon as they got back into the car to go home and then waking up a short while later to the sound of screaming. His parents had stopped to help what they thought was a young couple having a car trouble. It turned out to be a vampire couple that was just waiting for someone foolish enough to stop and help them. They killed his parents and would have killed him and Matt if Matt hadn't climbed into the driver's seat and drove them out of there (their dad left the car running when he went out to help). It had been the single worst night of his entire life and it set the stage for everything that happened afterwards.

He and Matt had originally been sent to live with their grandparents further up the state. It wasn't an arrangement that lasted for too long. Matt refused to get into the normal routine given to them. He was consumed by wanting to find out what killed their parents. It wasn't a matter of who; he and Jeff both clearly saw they weren't human. And it drove him crazy that day after day, nothing he said was taken seriously. Everyone thought he was just traumatized by what happened. They thought his imagination was just running away from him. Finally Matt got tired of it. He got tired of being not believed. He got tired of waiting for justice that was never going to come because everyone else was on the wrong trail. So he gathered up some of their stuff one night and took Jeff out of there. Jeff was the only one who had believed him. And at this point, Matt was still the perfect big brother in Jeff's eyes. Whatever Matt wanted he did so he left with him to go on the search for answers.

Jeff bit down on his lower lip and walked faster, trying to just get away from the memories. He didn't want to think about them anymore. As fast as he moved though, he couldn't escape them. The early years of living out on the streets, Matt meeting the demon hunter Michael Hayes…if there was a point where things went even more wrong than the night their parents died, that was it. He was the one who had helped form Matt's current obsession. Jeff himself hadn't been trained by Michael; the older man had found him to be too young and too much of a liability to even bother with. But Matt had been his star pupil. They would spend hours and hours training and hunting, leaving Jeff to fend for himself at Michael's house. It was because of Michael that Jeff stayed in school, a responsibility that later became Amy after she and Matt started dating. Matt had always opposed to him doing anything that was remotely normal. He wanted to pull Jeff as far into his obsession with him as possible. Despite his best efforts, Jeff never cooperated the way he wanted him too. That caused him to get mean and push Jeff even harder, which made Jeff rebel even more. And eventually, the big brother he once idolized became Jeff's worst enemy. He tried to tell Matt he was pushing too hard. He tried to get him to stop. His efforts were in vain though. So finally he ran away. He thought he ran far enough and stopped so he could enroll into college. He still wanted to have his normal life. So to college he went and it was there he met Mickie, who wanted to be his friend for whatever reason. He wasn't good at making them; the only one he had during high school was Amy and she didn't even go to school with him. When Mickie latched on to him he latched back and she tried to get him in with her circle of friends. Before he could get remotely comfortable with them though Matt had come bursting back into his life, insisting that Jeff had to come with him to hunt down some demons that he was having trouble killing. It was a ruse though, set up by Matt to try to reel Jeff back in. He had actually captured a couple demons and unleashed them on the campus to make it look like they had followed him there. Amy ratted him out and Jeff had blown up on him and retreated as far into himself as he could. He couldn't have a normal life without Matt trying to spoil it like a total asshole and even when the day came that Matt was no longer around he still didn't think that he could have a normal life anyway. He was too far gone for it.

He stopped suddenly and looked at where he was. He was on the street Chris and Jay's house was on. For a second he tried to think of why he would ever come there but then quickly remembered that Amy was staying with them. She was who he needed to see. She was the only one that could understand just how crazy Matt made him. He knew talking about Matt hurt her, considering how much she had loved him, but he didn't have anyone else to go to.

He shoved his hands into his pockets and walked the rest of the way to the house, taking a deep breath before going up the porch steps and ringing the doorbell. It was a few minutes before the door opened but the person doing the answering wasn't who he thought it was going to be. "Jeff?" Adam said in surprise. He opened the door more while Jeff's eyes widened. "What are you doing here?"

"I-I-I I was looking for Amy," Jeff stammered out.

"She's here," Adam informed him. "She's kind of busy smacking the crap out of Chris for squirting ketchup on her and trying to take her fries, but she's here." He stepped out of the way and motioned for Jeff to come inside. "Come on in. She should be finishing up with that now."

Jeff hesitated, which made Adam frown. He had no idea what that was about but he once again motioned again for Jeff to come in. "You can come in man. It's cool. Or I could go get her if you really want…"

Jeff shook his head. "It's fine." He was being stupid. He didn't know why he was being so stupid but he forced himself to stop and go into the house. "Thanks," he said quietly.

"No problem."

…

Steve kicked the door open to the demon bar popularly known as the Cole Mine despite the closed sign that had been in front of him. Michael Cole, the weasel like little troll standing behind the counter, jumped about a foot in the air and dropped the glass he had been cleaning. "St-Steve!" he said loudly, putting on a huge fake grin as he set down his towel and clapped his hands together nervously. "What are you doing here?"

"Admiring what you haven't done with the place," Steve said dryly. He looked around the seedy room in disgust before looking back at Cole. "Why do you think I'm here you dumb son of a bitch? I want information."

Cole swallowed hard and shook his head. "I'm not in the business of that anymore."

Steve raised an eyebrow and walked closer to the smaller man, noticing just how much he fidgeted and shrank back. "Is that right?"

"Yeah. That's right." Cole nodded along all too eagerly. "I'm getting out of that life. Living on the straight and narrow. You know what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, I know what you're saying. You're feeding me the biggest load of crap I've ever heard in my life." Steve reached across the bar and actually pulled Cole up across it before slamming his back into it. "Information. I want it and I want it NOW."

"What information?" Cole looked like he was about to piss himself with fear. It was a pretty common look on him, considering the clientele he kept and how often Steve came over to beat info out of him. "I know a lot of stuff Steve you gotta-"

"The Undertaker," Steve interrupted gruffly. He noticed the way Cole's face completely paled at the name and he tightened his grip more so the bastard wouldn't try to run off on him. "He and his little band of groupies are up to something. I want to know what it is."

"Nooo no you don't," Cole replied. "That's not anything-" he yelped in pain as he got punched in the face really hard. "Steve come on-owww!" He just got hit again, even harder this time. "I don't know much, okay?" He put his hands up in surrender. "Nobody's talked to me directly. I just heard things. They don't even know it all. They've just been hearing shit too."

"What _shit_ have they been hearing?" Steve growled. "You gotta be more specific or you won't be leaving here with any of your teeth."

"H-H-H-Horsemen!" Cole said quickly. "Horsemen. The word is Mark's been seen with the Horsemen."

"The Horsemen?" Steve repeated in disbelief.

"Yeah. You know. The apocalypse ones."

Steve slapped him a bit just out pure irritation. "Where have they been seen?"

"I don't know!"

Slap! "Liar!"

"Vegas! Vegas okay? Las Vegas. That's the rumor anyway. I can't confirm it or anything for you. The rumor is Vegas and the word is that they're plotting something big. Real big. It's got everyone real nervous. But what it is I don't know. Nobody does." He shrank back as Steve just glared at him. "That's all I know I swear. I swear on my momma's grave that's all I know."

Steve glared at Cole just a little longer to fuck with him. He had beaten information out of him enough times in the past to know when his well was dry. "I suggest you try to find some stuff out then. Or I'll be back to beat the information out of your clientele." He shoved Cole away before storming out of the bar, slamming the door shut behind him. He had refused to show it but he was worried. Worried might have actually been an understatement. He was…well he was actually kind of scared. First time in years that really happened. The Undertaker and the Ministry of Darkness was bad enough but adding in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? They were all officially fucked beyond the telling of it. _God damn it to mother fucking hell, can this shit get any worse?_

…

Wade Barrett surveyed the destruction that stretched out for miles and miles in front of him while also trying to ignore the way Bearer was prattling on and on next to him. The hot desert sun was beating down directly on them and he cupped his hands around his eyes so it would stop affecting his vision. He couldn't remember the name of the country they were in. It was one in the Middle East, but beyond that he had no idea. He switched around so much it was hard for him to keep track. This area of the world was just so ripe with conflict that he spent a great deal of his time here-and the effects of that were especially showing today. Full scale violence had broken between two of the neighboring countries and the death toll was steadily climbing to catastrophic levels. He was quite pleased with himself and wanted to enjoy his work, but Bearer being a huge pain in his ass was preventing him from doing that.

"War! Are you even listening to me?" Bearer snapped impatiently.

Wade's eyes narrowed and he looked at him irritably. "What? What the bloody hell are you going on about now?"

"Have you heard a word I've even said?"

"No. I haven't needed to. You're just bitching at me for being hard to find."

"Well-"

"I hate to break it to you sunshine, but I don't run on your schedule. You and bloody gang of idiots should be on your knees and thanking me for giving you the time of day. I owe none of you a thing and if I wanted to I could end the lot of you just like" he snapped his fingers "that. And you know it." He smirked at the look Paul gave him in response. "And by the way, it's Wade now. We've been over this."

"_Why_ do the whole lot of you insist on going by these names?"

"Why are you even bothering to ask?"

Bearer shook his head. "I'm asking myself that same thing. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the sweat off his brow. "Where's Death?"

"That's like locating that little Waldo fella."

"Who?"

"Waldo. You know, the little bloke-oh just forget it. Phil or Pesty might know where he ran off to."

"And if they don't?"

"We'll get one of the Reapers to tell us."

"They don't talk."

"They will if we make them."

"But-"

"You can either shut up now or I'll rip out your spine and beat you with it." Wade nodded at the silence that followed. "That's more like it."


	9. The Missing Piece

"I can't fucking believe him," Amy muttered with a shake of her head. Jeff had told her about what had happened with Matt and now she found herself to be extremely annoyed with her ex-boyfriend. "I can't _fucking_ believe him. She opened the refrigerator and got out a couple of beers for her and Jeff. "Do you have any idea where he ran off too after he left?"

"No," Jeff said as he took the beer from her. "And I don't care." He opened it and took a long drink of it. Usually he hated this shit but he didn't even care about that at the moment. He needed something to take the Matt inspired edge off. "As long as he doesn't come back I don't give a flying fuck where he is."

Amy nodded along, totally understanding that feeling. That had pretty much the state she had been after she and Matt had broken up. The difference between her and Jeff though, was that Matt was willing to leave her alone. He didn't really care that she had left him, which had hurt all in itself. She had invested so much of herself into her relationship and to have him not even care hurt like hell. But poor Jeff…Matt used him even more than he had her and the only reason he even cared that Jeff had gotten fed up with his shit was that he had lost the control he had over the younger man. Matt had always been about control. Amy always figured it stemmed from not having it the night his parents died but the she didn't ever say that. Talk like that always set him off in the worst way and she had never wanted to really test his temper.

"You know, did you ever think of hiring a doctor to surgically remove the stick out of his ass?" Jay asked Jeff. "Because medicine has really come a long ways and I think they might actually be able to do it."

Adam and Chris both snorted loudly while Jeff's lips twitched into a bit of a smile. Amy and Mickie were both very happy to see that. It wasn't something that happened very often. "I think he's beyond that kind of help."

"What about a personality transplant?" Chris suggested. "Turn him from an ass clown to not an ass clown?"

Adam shook his head and got out a beer for himself. "Weren't you the one that said 'once an assclown, always an assclown'?"

"Oh yeah…" Chris pondered that for a moment before shaking his head. "Sorry Jeff. You're just out of luck."

"Don't worry, I'm used to that." Jeff couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice as he said that. "It's the story of my entire life."

The others shifted around uncomfortably at that. Nobody ever knew what to say when Jeff opened enough to say something like that. When they tried to show him sympathy he got uncomfortable and usually left but it wasn't like they wanted to just blow it off as unimportant. That didn't feel right to them either.

"Just forget about it," Jeff said, breaking the silence himself. "I don't care. I'm over it." No he wasn't and he knew he wasn't fooling Amy or Mickie but he didn't care. He didn't want to talk about Matt anymore and he wanted the attention off of him as fast as possible. "Fuck him. He's not worth it."

"Hell no," Adam agreed. He held out his beer towards Jeff. "You're better than his bullshit."

"Damn right," Amy said. She knocked her beer against Adam's and Jeff's before taking a big drink of it.

"And look on the bright side: if this Undertaker dude is as bad as Austin seems to think he is, you won't have to worry about Matt at all," Jay said way too cheerfully.

Mickie gave him the most incredulous look she could muster. "How is that the bright side?"

"Uh…because it is?"

Mickie rolled her eyes and Jeff frowned and looked at Amy. "What about the Undertaker?"

"You heard of him?" Adam asked.

Jeff nodded a bit. He had heard quite a bit about The Undertaker and the Ministry of Darkness, mostly because Matt had gotten into a spot of trouble with one of his demons called Raven. How exactly that all started was still a mystery to Jeff; what he knew was that his one encounter with the demon had scared the shit out of him. With all the things he had seen he didn't get scared often but Raven had scared the shit out of him.

"You know all the stuff that's been happening?" Amy asked, temporarily distracting Jeff from his trip down memory lane. "The blood in the sinks, the massive bird suicides, and all that?" She waited until Jeff nodded before going on. "Well Gail and Mickie did this spell to see what was behind all this and Taker's symbol popped up."

"Actually it burned itself into the floor," Mickie corrected.

"And Steve like shit his pants when he found out," Jay chimed in. "And now we don't know where he went."

Jeff couldn't say he blamed Steve for that. If Taker's cronies were still as bad as he remembered he didn't want to imagine what Taker himself was like…

"_Matt where are we going?" Jeff asked yet again as he continued to trail behind Matt. It was nearly four in the morning and he was absolutely exhausted. Matt had decided to drag him out on a hunt against his and Amy's wishes and had thrown Jeff into as many fights as he possibly could. Vampires, demons-it didn't matter what it was. If it wanted to kill Jeff he was made to fight and while he had done okay at first, the last vampire he had come across he had literally come out alive by the skin of his teeth. His entire body was aching from the ordeal but did Matt care? No. He didn't give a shit. He just made Jeff follow him to wherever he was wanting to go next. He wouldn't say where exactly they were going. Jeff had asked him about twenty times now but he didn't answer once, which was very very frustrating._

"_Matt come on, where are we going?" Jeff asked yet again. He was getting really tired of this. "Can you at least just tell me?" He scowled when he STILL didn't get an answer. "Matt!"_

_Matt finally did turn around and the look he gave Jeff made the teenager flinch. "Will you shut the fuck up?" he hissed angrily. "You'll fucking see soon enough."_

_There were a lot of things Jeff wanted to say to that but he kept his mouth shut and reluctantly followed Matt once more. His legs were so sore that every step was a huge effort. He was actually considering just dropping down to the ground and refusing to go another step. It wouldn't sit well with Matt but at this point, he was past the point of giving a shit._

_Before he could actually put that idea in action though, he was interrupted by a loud, piercing scream. Immediately the hair on the back of his neck stood up and his heart skipped a beat. He and Matt exchanged the briefest of glances before taking off and following the sound of the next scream that pierced the night air. It had served as a shot of adrenaline for Jeff and he was able to forget about his own pain and run down the street, venturing quite deep into the meat packing district before skidding to a stop just seconds after Matt did. "Wha-"_

"_Ssshhhh!" Matt nearly backhanded Jeff as he put his hand up. Jeff closed his mouth and tried to keep his breathing under control as he looked around. The street was completely empty except for the two of them and the only lights around were the ones from the weak and flickering streetlights. He couldn't hear the screaming anymore, which wasn't a good thing. Experience had taught him that no screaming meant the person who had done it was either dead or well on their way there._

_Matt was on the move again, this time much more slowly. Jeff cautiously followed him, hearing something else besides the screaming. It sounded like…singing? Jeff stopped and listened more closely. It was singing he heard. He couldn't tell what was being sung but that wasn't really something that mattered. He started to move once again, though it was against his better judgment. Something about this situation seemed off. He wasn't sure what it was but the feeling of badness rising up inside of him was almost too much to ginore._

_In through an open warehouse door they went and there they stumbled upon a sight that made Jeff's stomach turn violently. A girl's body was hanging by the neck on a meat hook, completely naked and mutilated beyond recognition. A man stood near her, his curly hair hanging in front of his face and a baseball bat in his hand. He didn't even look at them when they came in. He just kept smacking the girl's body with the bat and singing something incomprehensible under his breath._

_Matt immediately raised his crossbow but before he could fire the man was on him, knocking him across the room with a single hit and grabbing Jeff by the throat. Jeff's eyes met his glowing red ones and Jeff saw the pure sadistic glee written on his expression, chilling him to his very core._

"Jeff?" Adam snapped his fingers in front of Jeff's face to snap him out of the daze he had fallen into. "Yoooo Jeffro. Earth to Hardy. You're freaking us out here man."

Jeff blinked and quickly shook off that unpleasant memory. "Sorry." He sheepishly took a drink of his beer. He felt like such a freak with the way they were looking at him.

Amy shook her head and placed an affectionate kiss on his forehead to try to put him at ease. He relaxed a bit and she went to step back when the windows suddenly rattling caught her attention. Her eyes drifted toward them, figuring it was just a car with the music turned all the way up going by. The rattling wasn't stopping though. It got stronger and stronger and then the floor began to vibrate as well.

"What the fu-"

Chris didn't get to finish the question. The entire house was shaking now, shaking so violently that shit was falling all over the place. Immediately they all collectively dived under the table, barely avoiding the entire light fixture that came crashing down seconds later. "Jesus CHRIST!" Chris yelled. "What the FUCK is THIS shit?"

"Earthquake dumbass!" Jay replied.

"But we DON'T get earthquakes here!"

"Well we do NOW!"

The shaking got even more violent and Amy flinched as all the windows broke at once and a loud boom from outside made her flinch even more. She could barely even breathe and at first she thought she was just that scared. Then she realized Mickie had latched her arms around her neck and she quickly dug her nails into her flesh to make her let go.

The whole thing lasted only about a minute but it felt much longer than that. When the shaking finally did stop none of them moved an inch. They stayed under the table, huddled together and either clinging to the table legs or each other. Minutes stretched by. Nobody was willing to move an inch until Chris chose to speak up.

"I've gotta pee."

Mickie grimaced and tried to look back at him, giving Jay a nice faceful of hair in the process. "TMI there sweetheart."

"I don't care. I gotta fucking pee now move." Everyone was still hesitant, fearing the earthquake would start again if they dared to move. "Move or I'm pissing on all of you."

That got them all moving. Jeff crawled from under the table first and started carefully stepping over everything that had fallen and broke during the quake. The ceiling had a pretty large crack running across it and he immediately headed towards the door to get the hell out. He had heard somewhere that it was better to stay inside after a quake but given that crack, the house didn't strike him as particularly safe anymore. Better to be outside in the open than inside where the house could like collapse if an aftershock hit.

Adam and Amy followed him outside and their jaws dropped open at the destruction waiting for them out there. There was a huge car pile up and several of them were on fire. Smoke and burning flesh filled the air, making them cough and choke. Power lines were down all over the place and some stupid teenager across the street tried to go investigate one until his father yanked him back by his arm. They could all hear sirens in the distance and hopefully that meant some kind of help was on the way. It was definitely needed at the moment.

Jeff slowly walked forward, just looking around at everything. Adam and Amy were going to help people but he made no move to do that. He just explored the destruction, going halfway down the block before coming to a stop at a peculiar sight. Sitting on top of a mailbox was a little doll. He blinked several times and looked again. The doll was sitting there and it actually felt like it was staring at him. "What the fuck…" Shaking his head he went over to get a closer look. The doll had extremely pale "skin" and long black hair that went all the way down her back. Her lips and dress were both really red and her large blue eyes were staring at him, mildly creeping him out. "Okay then…" He couldn't even begin to think of a reasonable explanation as to why that would be there. He wasn't even going to try. He just set the doll back where he found it and went back to find the others, doing his best to ignore the way it still felt like the damn thing was staring at him.

…

That one earthquake wasn't the only one that hit that day. All across the North America earthquakes hit en masse, baffling scientists and setting off a whole chain of other disasters. A dam up in South Dakota actually broke during the earthquake there and now the entire Midwest was going underwater. The initial earthquakes and all the aftershocks triggered a tsunami on California shores and the body count was being added to greatly there. Nobody had power and the entire government was overwhelmed in trying to provide emergency relief.

Down in Mexico City there was devastation all over the place and seemingly nobody doing anything about it. That caused a great deal of amusement to the passengers of the three Ferrari's speeding down the road, weaving around the destruction in front of them. In the lead was the white one, where Michelle and Mark were both happily observing the chaos around them Next came the red one, where Wade and Bearer were bickering away like an old married couple. And then came the black one, which had Phil blasting the most obnoxious music he possibly could just to annoy the hell out of Glenn.

"Why exactly would he set up shop _here_?" Mark asked as they approached the sprawling mansion that was so ridiculously huge that he actually did a double take at the sight of it.

Michelle shrugged her shoulders. "Alberto likes his space."

"…He's calling himself Alberto?" Mark didn't know whether to laugh or groan. "What the fuck kind of demon did you guys hire to take over this gig?"

She shrugged again. "Satan did it, not us. He was kind of desperate after his so called favorite jumped ship on us." She parked the car outside the gate and honked the horn so someone would open the gate. "Besides, we actually LIKE him…well kind of anyway. And you gotta admit, he's got quite the flair for the dramatic. I mean really, _how_ many people have died today?"

Mark couldn't deny that she had a point there. "Why would he even be _here_ then? If he's that busy-"

"Meh, he lets the Reapers do most of the dirty work. Gotta use the flunkies for something." She honked the horn again before rolling down her window and sticking her head through it. "Hey! Someone open the FUCKING gate!" She honked some more, nearly punching her steering wheel she was getting so angry. "Fucking open it NOW!"

"Oh for fuck's sake…" Mark made the gates open himself and shook his head at her as she drove inside. She didn't thank him or anything. She just muttered under her breath as she pulled up to the mansion and out she went, to face Wade and Phil, who were both leering at her.

"A little impatient back there weren't you Pesty?" Phil put his arm around her shoulders and tried to give her a noogie. "We couldn't just wait patiently, oh no. We've got to get impatient and use big girl language."

"Fuck OFF." Michelle shoved him away and stormed up the stairs.

"What's the matter toots?" Wade smirked as she gave him a death glare. "You a little upset?"

She glared at him some more but didn't even bother to respond. She just silently plotted to give them both the plague while walking into the mansion like she owned the place. "Alberto?" The entire place was dark and she flipped the nearest light switch. Power still didn't come on. It must have gotten knocked out during the earthquake and nobody had gotten around to fixing it yet. "Alberrrrrtoooo." She ventured deeper into the house, shaking her head when she got no response. "Ricardo? Are YOU here at least?" Ricardo was Alberto's little man servant that bore such a resemblance to Eddie Munster that Phil nearly pissed himself laughing every time he saw him.

She still wasn't getting an answer and she clenched her teeth in annoyance. "What the fuck is going on?" she growled. "Is fucking ANYONE here?"

"We are!" Phil yelled back at her.

"I wasn't talking to-what the HELL?" She happened to open the dining room door and found pieces of both Alberto and Ricardo literally strung across the floor, their blood spattered all over the walls and windows.

"What are you screaming about now woman?" Wade asked as he and the others caught up to her. "Because quite honestly-oh bloody hell." He stared at the scene in front of him in disbelief while Phil went into the room and literally picked up some of Alberto's limbs and waved them around.

"Okay, SOMEBODY explain this shit to me," Glenn said. He was automatically turning to Paul and Mark because he was completely lost at the moment. "This is fucking Death we're supposed to be looking at here. How the HELL do you kill death?"

Mark stepped into the room and knelt down by what was left of Alberto's torso before answering. "Well clearly he was downgraded before this happened. Question is _why_?"

"And who the hell took his place?" Paul added in. "And where the hell is he now? We need him-"

"Technically you don't," Phil interrupted.

Paul gave him a dirty look. "Yes we do. We need the FOUR Horsemen of the Apocalypse, not the three-"

"YOU all just want us because it gives you an ego boost," Phil said bluntly. "Your whole plan to wipe out the humans and make this fucking place your own private hell doesn't necessarily NEED to include us. You just want us to make it go more smoothly and more quickly." He turned away from Paul and looked at Mark, who was getting back up to his feet. "Look, you want me to be a part of this, we fucking keep on schedule. Whoever's running around playing Death now clearly is doing his job so we can fucking just do ours."

"He's right," Wade agreed. "Hell, at the rate we'll be going, he's bound to just end up coming to us." He looked at Michelle and she nodded in agreement. Fact was, they were getting a huge piece of the kingdom Mark was looking to build for himself. Originally they were going to serve the devil when his end of times was set to go but after being treated like idiotic flunkies for several centuries, they turned to serve someone else who at least showed them little bit of respect. Of course, they were aware that at the end of the day, Mark was still using them. He was giving them just enough respect to keep them happy. But at the end of the day, if they didn't end up happy with him, they would turn on him and they knew they could take him down. As bad as the Undertaker thought he was, he would fall to the Horsemen.

"They're right," Mark said to Paul. Whether he was saying this because he believed that or because he was keeping them happy was cared by nobody. Paul was giving him a murderous look, the Horsemen were already leaving and Glenn just didn't look like he gave a shit one way or the other. What they all failed to notice though was the fact that sitting up on the chandelier sat a little baby doll in a little red dress, staring right down at them.

…

Down in the depths of hell, Satan was observing all of this with a growing sense of anger. Being cast out of Heaven and stuck down in this pit didn't exactly make him the happiest of people in the first place and what he was able to see of this entire Undertaker saga was making him even more cranky than he usually was. He knew that Mark wasn't telling the Horsemen the entire story. He wasn't even telling his own flunkies the entire story. Fact of the matter was, Mark wasn't just looking to take over the mortal world; he wanted to take over ALL of them. He already had control of some of the demon ones and if he took the moral one the others would soon fall, which would fuel the power hungry egomaniac Mark truly was. Next step would be to march right here into Hell and take Satan's place, obliterating him in the process. Why? Because he was such an ass that he couldn't stand the thought of someone potentially more powerful than he was. Not that he could really be blamed for that. Satan himself was kicking his own ass for not nipping this issue in the bud sooner.

He had a plan though. An emergency plan. His plan was sitting right there with him, hunched over, cradling one of his seemingly never ending supply of baby dolls. This was the original Death. Alberto had been a replacement and considering how quick he had gotten cozy with Mark, he hadn't been as good of one as he had originally thought. The reason for the replacement being made crossed his mind but he quickly disregarded it. That really didn't matter. Death was back in business and his rage and thirst for vengeance worked perfectly for what he himself needed to be done.

"One down…" Satan chuckled and kneeled down in front of Death. His hood was pulled tightly over his head and his scythe was right next to him, being ignored for the doll he was holding. "So many more to go." He waited for some kind of response but got nothing. Not surprising. Since his return to the fold, Death hadn't been the most talkative of people. He had been driven completely mad and there was only one thing that would help him. "Once they start to really spread it'll take about seven days for the world to go to hell. You get them all by those seven days and I'll help you out. Anything you want will be yours." He waited for some kind of response but got nothing. The damn doll was keeping his attention away from him. "You know I won't fuck you over."

A grunt. That was all he got for a response. It was something though and Satan stepped back so Death could grab his scythe and disappear on the spot.


	10. Chaos Reigns

Steve was trying to get back to the house when the earthquake hit. He pulled over and held on tight during the whole thing, very lucky not to get into a crash or have any shit fall on him. After it was over he started driving once again, weaving around the accidents, fallen branches and people that were just coming out from all directions. "God damn it to fucking hell," he muttered under his breath. He seriously thought about just pulling over and leaving his car there so he could walk the rest of the way but ultimately he couldn't do it. He didn't own much in this world but this truck was his pride and joy. He couldn't just leave it unless there really wasn't any other choice in the matter.

He finally did manage to get back to the house and when he did he saw that the entire neighborhood was outside, talking to each other and watching the firefighters do their thing. "Yo!" he yelled at Amy, who was huddled together with Adam, Chris, Jay, Mickie and Jeff.

"Steve!" Amy's eyes widened as she turned to him and the next thing he knew, she had launched herself into his arms. He stumbled back a bit in surprise but regained his footing and hugged her back. She was the only person he wouldn't shove away right now. If any of the guys wanted a hug though, they'd find themselves heading to the ground ass first.

"You're acting like that shit was supposed to kill me or something," he said with a chuckle. "Come on now, you know better than that."

"I'm just glad you're safe," she said, kissing his cheek and smirking at the way he rolled his eyes.

"I'm glad you're safe too but you don't see me jumping into your arms." He glared at Chris and Jay for snickering before giving her a peck on the cheek and making her let him go. "What's the damage here?"

"Structure damage we think," Adam replied, coming over to stand with them. "Giant crack in the ceiling and a few more against the sides and shit. Someone definitely needs to look the shit over before we all go rushing back in there."

"Jesus," Steve muttered under his breath.

"That means we don't have a place to stay." Steve did NOT like the way Amy was saying that. "Which means…" she paused just to make him wait for it "slumber party!"

"Uh….no," Steve immediately refused. "Him, him and her" he was pointing at Adam, Jeff and Mackie "have their own place. You and Dumb and Dumber can stay with one of them."

"But we would ALL feel better if we could stay with you." Maybe there was an inkling of truth in that but clearly she was just doing this to drive him nuts. She wasn't known for them but she did get wild hairs up her ass like that from time to time. "Please Steve? Pleeeeeeeaaaaaaassssseeeeeee? Pleaseeeeeeeeeee? With a cherry on top pleeeeeaassssseeeeee?"

"Yeah pleaseeeeeeee?" Oh lord. Not only was Adam joining in but Chris and Jay were as well. Mickie was too busy laughing at the look on Steve's face and Jeff's entire face was twitching in amusement. "Please Steve, please? We'll love you forever Steve we promise we will-"

"Shut up!" he hissed. He could see people looking over at them and his face actually started to turn red in embarrassment. "You guys STOP this this instant!"

They weren't stopping though. Chris and Jay were actually on their knees, grabbing on to his shorts and yanking at them as they begged. "Okay okay okay!" He shook his head as he very reluctantly gave in. "You win. You can stay with me. Just shut the fuck up please."

"Yes!" Chris jumped up to his feet and pumped his fist in victory. "We win! Yes yes yes-ow!" He earned himself a nice hard smack from Steve for that. "What the hell man?"

"You're annoying," was Steve's reply. And it was the truth. "Now shut up and get in the truck. It was going to be a miracle if he didn't kill them all.

…

The army of demons in front of Mark literally stretched on for miles and miles; he couldn't actually see the whole lot of them. He had used a spell on himself though that would give off the same effect as a microphone so he didn't have to shout and kill his voice. Kane and Paul were to his left, the Horsemen were to his right and Raven, Viscera and Bradshaw were standing in front of the rest of the army. All eyes were on him, knowing what he wanted but just waiting for him to give the command.

"Sweep it clean," he finally said, his dark eyes slowly drifting across everyone in front of him. "Every kill you make makes me stronger so sweep it ALL clean. Any human, any demon that refuses to join-NOTHING is to be left of them. You understand?"

They all nodded. Even if they didn't understand, they wouldn't dare say so. They weren't risking Mark's wrath. He had a horrible temper and getting on his bad side was the stupidest thing one could do.

"Good." He waved his hands dismissively. "Now go."

With the exception of the Ministry and the Horsemen, they all left. The Ministry had already divided the demons up and told them where they were supposed to go. Divide and conquer was the strategy, though quite frankly, with the numbers Mark had, it was more like sweep in like a fucking plague…it would be a week before his power reached its zenith and he could take total control of the entire plane of existence but it would only be a matter of hours before things spiraled into complete chaos.

"Well then," Phil said, smirking at Mark while Bearer rolled his eyes "don't you just feel all…spiffy. You got alllllllllllll those little demons just running to please you. Neat isn't it?"

Mark just gave him a look that he chuckled out before taking off with Michelle and Wade. "Insufferable," Paul muttered under his breath. "The whole lot of them."

"Useful though," Mark responded. He motioned for the other Ministry members to leave and once they did he turned to Paul and held out his hand. "Very very useful."

Paul wasn't exactly rushing to agree with that but he kept his mouth shut about it. He handed Mark the urn and let him admire it for a few moments before taking it back and tucking it back under his arm for safe keeping.

…

Jeff was the first one to wake up the next day and he rolled off the couch and stepped over Chris and Jay, who were both sprawled out on the floor. He and Adam had won the couches while Steve slept in his room and Amy and Mickie got the guest room. Steve's house had no power when they got there last night so they had to hunt down some ice to put his frozen and refrigerated stuff on, in hopes that the power would come back on by morning. Unfortunately though, it hadn't. Jeff flipped the switches several times but nothing came on. "Crap," he muttered. They would have to get more ice real soon and maybe get a hold of the power company to see if they were anywhere near getting this shit fixed. Steve had called them last night but he had just gotten a recorded message saying that they were working on the problem but it would take some time given the mass power outages through the whole city.

He made his way into the kitchen and went into the pantry. The sunlight streaming in through the window provided him enough light to see what he was doing. He grabbed a package of blueberry Poptarts and opened the back door so he could go out on to the porch. The grass was still sparkling with the morning dew and the sun that had just risen hadn't warmed the air up, making him shiver from the lingering coolness of the night. In the distance he could see some clouds but he hoped they would just pass. He didn't want any rain today.

He sat down in the nearest chair and leaned back, absent mindedly munching on his breakfast while he stared off into the distance. The clouds that he had hoped would just go away kept advancing forwards and he was startled to see how black they were. They weren't even normal storm clouds. They were literally turning the day back into night and once the enveloped the sun Jeff was sitting in complete darkness. A chill went up his spine and he slowly stood up, his eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness so he could see again. His heart was starting to beat faster inside of his chest. Something was really wrong with this situation. It didn't feel like this was just some kind of horrible storm sweeping in. The clouds were ominous but there was no wind or any other sign that it was a storm. It was more like an omen-what it was though he had no idea. He just knew from the knot in his stomach that it couldn't be good and he went back inside to go wake up the others. Whatever the fuck was happening, he had no intention on being the only one awake for it.

…

Ashley stayed in the car this time as Matt pounded on Jeff's door once more. He just would not give up on this. He had barely even slept before dragging her back here to try to talk to Jeff once again. It was a complete lost cause but she wasn't going to tell him that. She just let him do his thing while she stared out the window. What had started out as a potentially nice day had turned into complete darkness and it was creeping her out. "Fuck me," she muttered under her breath. She needed a distraction and turned to her I-pod for it. She had it on shuffle and she skipped through several songs before finding something she liked.

_My first kiss went a little like this_

_(smooch)_

_And twist_

_(smooch smooch)_

_And twist_

_Well my first kiss went a little like this_

_(smooch)_

_And twist_

_(smooch smooch) _

_And twist_

"_I said no more teachers and no more books. I got a kiss under the bleachers hopin' nobody looked,_" Ashley sang along, dancing a bit in her seat. "_Lips like licorice, tongue like candy, excuse me miss but can I get you out your panties…_" Out of the corner of her eye she saw something bright going past her but it wasn't until it hit the house next door and it burst into flames that she really took notice. "Holy SHIT!" She ripped out her headphones and dropped her I-pod to the floor as she got out of the car. Matt was already on his way over there and she tried to follow him when she saw another fireball whizzing down the street, hitting another house that was about ten feet away. "Jesus CHRIST!" Her hand flew over her mouth, her eyes wide in horror. "Matt! What is going on?"

He didn't have an answer to that. Not only did he not know the answer but his eyes were on the demons that were coming out of nowhere. It wasn't even like there was just a couple of them though. There were literally dozens of them, breaking into people's houses, grabbing people on the street…and some of them were coming right at her. "Shit! Matt! MATT!"

Of course Matt wasn't there for her. He had jumped right into the chaos and was trying to fight off four vampires at once. In a split second she did what she probably should have done ages ago-she split. She tried to go back to the car since the keys were in the ignition but she forced herself to skid to a stop when she saw a demon standing in her way. It was only a little taller than she was but it had no mouth and little red prickly things sticking out of its flesh colored hands. It lunged at her clumsily but she managed to get out of the way and started running once again. She didn't dare look back but she knew it was chasing her. She could hear it's loud, lumbering footsteps right behind her and they spurred her to move faster. In school she had always been the slowest girl in her class but now either her fear and adrenaline were making her run faster than she ever had before or this thing was even slower than she was.

Smoke hung so heavy in the air it was almost impossible to breathe. The screaming was the worst though. People were being dragged out of their homes and brutally slaughtered. Ashley was too busy running to really see it all but the she couldn't block out the screaming. They were absolutely gut wrenching. She didn't dare stop though. There was nothing she could do for anybody else. She had to keep going and save herself.

She just managed to launch herself over a demon that had its head buried inside of a girl's stomach, apparently feasting on her insides. The demon chasing her was not quite so lucky. It crashed into the other demon and allowed her to finally lose it. She careened around the corner and nearly slipped and fell face first. She managed to get her hands out to catch herself, scraping her palms up all to shit. She ignored the stinging pain from that and pushed herself back up so she could keep running.

She had absolutely no idea where she was even running to. No place looked remotely safe so she just forced herself to keep going until her legs couldn't take anymore and she had to go behind a tree to collapse. Her lungs were burning so badly that she couldn't even breathe properly. She just kept wheezing and she actually almost passed out. Somehow though, she managed to stay conscious and after several minutes her breathing was somewhat normal again.

_What the hell is going on?_ Now that was the question of the hour. She had seen some weird shit ever since Matt had come into her life but this wasn't like anything she had ever seen. This was just pure insanity. She needed to get the hell out of here but her legs were complete rubber. There was no way she could reasonably run anywhere else.

A rustling of some leaves made her look up and she saw a demon hanging upside down right above her. She screamed and tried to move out of the way but it dropped down on her and pinned her down before sinking its teeth into her neck and ripping her throat right out.

…

"Jesus CHRIST!" Steve yelled as another hellhound burst in through the window. He and the others had woken up not that long ago and already it was just raining demons. He didn't know why the fuck that was but he did know that he sure as shit didn't like it.

The hellhound snarled and lunged at Chris, who barely got out of the way in time. The beast growled and turned around to lunge again when Amy fired her crossbow at it. She did it in a hurry though so her aim was off and the arrow only went in the thing's shoulder. It snarled again and lunged again, this time at her. Steve immediately yanked her out of the way and threw himself at it, bringing it down to the ground and swiftly stabbing it in the neck.

"What the fuck is going on?" Adam asked. His eyes looked like they were about to pop right out of his head.

"Fuck if I know," Steve replied. He pushed the hound away from him and got back up to his feet. "But this shit is pissing me the hell off."

"Guys, look at this." Mickie was standing by the window looking at all the shit that was going on outside. Things had dissolved into complete and total chaos out there. "This is nuts."

"We should hide," Jay said as he tried to pull Mickie away from the window.

Steve shook his head. "They'll just keep coming." Judging from what was going on outside, the hounds they got were just the beginning. There was no way they were going to be safe in there. There were just too many ways to get in. "We gotta go."

"Go?" Chris repeated incredulously. "Go where?"

"I don't know. We just can't stay here. We-" A loud crash from upstairs made them jump but they didn't even go to see what the hell it was. They just bolted out the front door, Jeff having enough sense to grab several weapons on the way out. Steve practically threw Mickie and Amy into the truck while the other boys jumped into the back of it. "Uh…wait a second." Jay shook his head worriedly as Steve slammed the driver's side door. They were pretty exposed out on the bed of the truck. "I think we need another vehicle."

Too late for that. Steve backed out of the driveway like a bat out of hell and the boys just had to hang on for dear life. The demons nearby heard the truck going and tried to chase after them. Jeff fired his crossbow at a couple of them but Steve was going fast enough though that none of them could really catch up. "So who scheduled an apocalypse and didn't tell us?" Adam asked as he slowly relaxed.

"I don't know," Jeff said. He wasn't rushing to join the others in relaxing. "But I kind of think it's rude."

"Where do you think we're going?" Chris asked.

"Who cares? As long as it's not infested with de-ohhhhh fuuuuuck."

"What?" Chris's voice spiked with panic. "Don't say oh fuck like that. Don't-what the fuck are you looking at?"

Jay pointed up and they looked up to see something flying right at them. Jeff's first instinct was to think it was a dragon but it wasn't spitting fire at them. So either it wasn't a dragon or it was just making them wait for it. "Hooooly fuck…"

"Faster!" Jay banged on the back window of the truck to get Steve's attention. "Faster faster faster FASTER WOULD BE BETTER!"

The creature made this horrible screeching noise and swooped in, grabbing Adam with its talons and started to take off with him. Jay and Jeff immediately grabbed on to Adam to try to pull him back but they just got lifted up too. Chris grabbed on to Jay and it was all four of them that were being taken away. They could hear Amy screaming at Steve but it wasn't exactly doing them any bit of good.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" Adam couldn't even struggle because the weight of the others was holding him down. The creature's talons were digging into his skin and the damn thing was going higher and higher, certainly taking them to certain doom.

"Someone DO something!" Chris yelled. He was just barely hanging on to Jay.

Jeff reached into his pocket and took out his knife. "Hold on!" He climbed up Adam, wincing as the older man grunted in pain. "Sorry, sorry…" he climbed up far enough to reach the demon's leg and drove the knife right into it. The demon screeched and promptly dropped them, making them land in a heap in the middle of the street.

…

"Jesus fucking Chris on a cross!" Steve cursed as he tried to make a U turn so he could go back and check on the guys. He had Mickie and Amy both screaming in his ear and it was really starting to get to him. "I'm going I'm going calm-"

"STEVE LOOK OUT!"

Steve looked just in time run his truck right into Viscera, who didn't even flinch at the impact. Hitting him was like hitting a brick wall and Steve's head smashed into the steering wheel so hard that he immediately lost consciousness.


	11. Death Strikes

"Ow ow ow ow ow…" Chris sat up slowly, wincing at the absolutely horrendous pain in his back. He had landed pretty hard on it and it hadn't helped that the others had landed at least partly on him. "Ow ow fuck me fuck me fuck me…" He gritted his teeth and took several deep breaths to try to get himself through it. It felt like he had broken it or something, though the fact that he was able to sit up on his own pointed to it not being as bad as it felt…at least he hoped not anyway. "Jesus fucking Christ." He shut his eyes and kept them squeezed close pretty tight for a few moments, hoping that would help. The hope died out though when someone grabbed his shoulder and started shaking him. "FUCK!" He opened his eyes and glared at Jay. "What the FUCK was that for?"

Jay just pointed to something up ahead and Chris looked even though his gut was telling him he didn't want to. What he ended up seeing was Steve's now completely wrecked truck standing there in the middle of the road and a huge four hundred pound black man ripping the driver's side door completely off and tossing it aside. "Ohhhh my god," Chris said under his breath. His pain was momentarily forgotten as he watched the guy grab the unconscious Steve and toss him out of the car like he was a rag doll.

"What the fuck is that?" Adam asked.

"Viscera."

Chris frowned and looked at Jeff. "Who?"

Jeff didn't answer that. He was already back up to his feet and he was running towards Viscera. Jay and Adam were close behind him, spurred on by seeing Vis reaching back in for Amy and Mickie. Chris was slower to get up but he started moving a bit quicker when he heard Mickie start to scream. _Oh fuck me this is NOT gonna end well…_

…

"Get OFF her!" Mickie screeched as she tried smack Viscera off of the half conscious Amy. Her vision was somewhat blurred by the blood running down from her hairline but this guy was way too hard to miss. He looked like a man except for his eyes. They were absolutely demonic and they were fixated on Amy, who was just regaining her bearings and realizing what was coming at her. She took one good look at him and screamed, trying to scramble over Mickie to get out the other door. She didn't get very far though. Viscera grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back violently. She screamed and grabbed on to Mickie, who tried to pull her back. All that got her was a meaty hand in her hair and the next thing she knew they were both being yanked out the car.

"Fuck!" He was actually dangling them a few inches off the ground, digging his fingers deeper into their scalps. They were both kicking their feet wildly but it wasn't doing any good. He shrugged off every blow like it was nothing. They even nailed him between the legs on a couple different occasions and still he wouldn't let go.

"Let GO!" Jeff shouted, jumping up and driving his feet into Viscera's chest with as much force as he possibly could. That made the big man take about a half a step back but that was it. Jeff ended up landing hard on his back, the back of his head bouncing off the pavement and making him see stars. Viscera looked down at him for a moment before tossing Mickie down so he could grab Jeff instead. Mickie got her hands out in time to save herself from landing on her face. She scraped the hell out of them in the process but she didn't have any time to really process that. Adam was grabbing her and dragging her out of the way while Jay jumped on Viscera's back and put him in a headlock.

"Come on," Adam said as he dragged her over to Steve, who hadn't stirred.

"I gotta help," she protested. She was trying to wriggle out of his grasp despite his best efforts to keep a hold of her. Things were not going well for the others. Viscera had let Jeff and Amy go so he could yank Jay off of him. Now they along with Chris were trying to fight him but nothing they did had much effect. Chris had found a piece of wood and was trying to whack him in the head with it but he easily caught it and snatched it out of Chris's hands. With one big swipe he knocked them all down with it and then kicked Chris in the ribs to send him flying.

"How the hell are you gonna help with that?" Adam asked as he winced. The only sensible thing in his mind was that they all needed to start running. There was no way they could keep trying to fight this guy. They just needed to run the hell away and hope he was too slow to catch them again.

Mickie didn't actually give him an answer. She just wrenched herself out of his grasp and ran around the back of the truck so she could get on the side of it she had been sitting on. She could not remember now if she had grabbed her bag before they had left or not. If she did she wanted to try to find something that could possibly confuse or weaken Viscera somehow. She didn't know if it would even remotely work but it was better than nothing.

She opened the door and looked around the floor of the truck, her hopes falling when she didn't see it. She tried searching around under the seat but a loud bang coming from the top of the truck scared the hell out of her. She moved back out of the truck and looked up, screaming as she came face to face with a hooded figure looking down at her from the roof. The thing was absolutely huge; the robe certainly couldn't hide that. She couldn't see a single feature on it's face but she could feel it burning a hole in her soul as it looked at her. She tried to take a step back but her feet were frozen to the ground. All she could do was stare up at it with wide eyes.

The figure glared at her for another second before turning to look down at Viscera. The demon had no idea it was even there; he was too busy stalking Amy, who was scrambling back as fast as she could. The figure jumped down from the truck and raised up a scythe that Mickie hadn't noticed until just then. "Oh fuck," she said under her breath. It looked like he was going for Viscera but she couldn't be sure. "Look out!"

The sound of her voice made Viscera turn to look at her and the hooded figure swung the scythe like a baseball bat, driving the blade deep into his stomach. Mickie slapped a hand over her mouth and watched as the figure twisted the scythe and yanked it up, slicing Viscera right in half. His body fell with two splats on the ground but the figure wasn't done yet. It raised the scythe again and brought it down over and over again on Viscera's body, growling like an animal all the while. It didn't even notice Jeff helping Amy up and Jay going over to Adam so they could carry the still unconscious Steve away. "Mickie come on!" Chris hissed, waving for her to get going as he hobbled on by. He wasn't doing a good job at hiding how hurt he was.

"What is that?" she asked, her eyes still fixed on the hooded figure.

"Who the hell cares?" Chris snapped. He grabbed her hand and started dragging her along behind the others. "Let's go!"

She hesitated for a moment, taking one last look back at the hooded figure that was still hacking away at Viscera's body. It finally stopped and reached into the mutilated mess and pulled out Viscera's spine, holding it up like it was a trophy or something. Mickie gagged and turned back around, nearly tripping over her own feet as she forced herself to go faster.

…

Death held the spine tightly in his hand, staring at it for a long moment before tossing it aside and looking back own at the mess he had made. The sheer mass that had been Viscera was now just chunks all over the street. Death hadn't actually meant to make it as big of a slaughter as he did. The only reason he had even offed Viscera first was because he had been the unlucky one closest to him. In terms of his hit list, big Vis had been on the lowest end of it. He had been offed because he was there. The ones he really wanted would be a lot harder to find.

Death kicked Viscera's skull away before reaching into his robe and taking out one of his many little baby dolls. He smoothed down its dress and pet it's hair lovingly before sitting it up nice on top of the wrecked truck. No way would it go down on the ground. Not with that mess.

"Boss?"

Death glanced over and saw one of his Reapers standing not too far away from him. Natalya was her name. She was the one he had thought should have taken his place when he had left. Satan had even acknowledged that he should have given her the gig instead of Alberto. At least, Death thought he did…then again, he could have just been hearing things. The only thing he could think coherently about was his mission. Otherwise it was all just lost to his pain. His grief…there had to be irony somewhere in him feeling it but he couldn't see. He was too consumed with it to see anything.

"Boss?" Natalya said again. He hadn't realized it but he had started rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, humming lowly under his breath. "Boss?" She snapped her fingers to try to get his attention. "Boss!"

He refused to look at her. He looked everywhere but her, his eyes eventually landing on a couple of people coming towards them. A man and a woman, holding hands. Mid twenties or so by the looks of them. The woman was clinging more to the man, obviously relying on him for protection. And the man seemed so eager to do it. He lifted her hand up and kissed it before wrapping his arm around her and kissing the top of her head.

"_Baby Doll?" He wrapped his arm around the tiny woman and kissed the top of her head. They were walking side by side across the beach, enjoying the fact that they had it all to themselves. The sun was just starting to set and the breeze was starting to pick up a little bit._

"_Hmmm?"_

"_Where are we going?"_

_She looked up at him with her large blue eyes and giggled. "It's a SURPRISE my darling."_

"_But I wanna know now."_

"_You will know soon enough."_

_He pouted his lips and gave her his cutest little puppy dog expression. "Pleeeeeease tell me?" _

_She giggled at him and he grinned, dipping her back a bit before leaning down to give her a kiss._

He reached up under the hood and grabbed his hair, letting his hood fall back as he shook his head. His eyes were still on the young couple, a horrible rage filling up inside of him. They were mocking him. Flaunting what they had in front of his face. They were a reminder of what he didn't have anymore. Everything that was taken away. He shook his head, an ugly scowl crossing his face. They were looking right at him and he vanished, reappearing seconds later right in front of them. He wrapped his hands around their throats and snapped their necks even though they died as soon as he touched them.

"Was that really necessary?" Natalya asked as she watched him throw the bodies down like a child who didn't want his toys anymore.

He just glared at her before putting the hood back over his head. He slung the scythe over his shoulder and disappeared without a word.


	12. Where's your brother?

Matt held his injured side as he dragged himself along. He was covered in blood, a lot of it his own. A vampire had gotten his own stake from him and had attempted to use it against him when he was down. He had gotten mostly out of the way but the thing had still managed to get him more than it should have. It was a stupid mistake on his part that he never should have let happen. He had just gotten so distracted with all the other vampires rushing him at once. That wasn't anything that was so strange to him. It had certainly happened plenty of times in the past, especially with the thousands of nests he had gone into over the years. But the combination of that group and the stream of demons that had come at him before that just left him vulnerable in a way he hadn't been in a very long time. It was not a feeling he enjoyed at all.

He tried to put the pain behind him but eventually it was just too much. He had to stop and lift up his shirt so he could see the damage that had been done to him. His side was covered in blood and wincing he ran his fingers over the wound to see how deep it really was. It was deeper than he originally thought and he groaned. That was not good. He was gonna have to stop and stitch himself up to make sure he didn't like pass out or die from the blood loss.

"Fuck," he muttered under his breath. He looked around at his surroundings. There were a few vamps feeding on some people at the end of the block. How they weren't smelling him and going for him was beyond him. Point was that they weren't and he needed things to keep going like that until he got himself cleaned up. He looked around some more before going towards the nearest house and going right in the front door. He had no idea who's house it was or if they were even still alive at this point. Given the way things had been going today, there was a good chance they weren't.

The lights were still on and he could see a trail of blood that went from the bottom of the staircase over to the busted out window just a few feet away. It was now pretty much confirmed that nothing good had happened there. Matt shook his head and started looking around for the bathroom. He found one upstairs and he cleaned up his wound and started pressing several towels against himself so he could stop the bleeding. While keeping the towels on him with one hand he started searching around for needle and thread. He didn't find any in the bathroom so he had to expand his search elsewhere. After several minutes of searching he managed to find some in one of the bedrooms. He also found a whiskey cabinet and he readily downed some so he was somewhat numb to the pain of stitching himself back up. He had done it on more than one occasion in the past and it was a bitch to do every single time.

When he was done he went downstairs and made himself a sandwich and drank a couple glasses of water with it. His body was begging for a big long extended rest but he knew that wasn't really much of an option. The busted out window made it too easy for something to get in so it wasn't safe for him to rest here too long. The question became though, where was somewhere safe? Shit had seemed to gone to hell everywhere and he had no idea why. That was the most frustrating part for him. If he didn't know what was doing it he wouldn't know who to kill to make it stop.

"You think you can make this stop? Oh Matty, you REALLY don't get it do you?"

Matt whirled around and saw Raven standing right behind him. His eyes widened. He hadn't even heard him come in. _Son of a bitch…_ He immediately reached for a weapon but he didn't get a chance to even touch it. Raven grabbed him by the wrist and bent it back so far that it broke. As he screamed in pain he was grabbed by the throat and slammed into the wall so hard that the back of his head bounced off the wall. Little stars danced before his eyes but they disappeared when Raven tightened his grip and put his face right up into his.

"Miss me?" Raven asked with a smirk.

Matt only scowled and tried his best to twist himself out of Raven's grip. Out of all the things he could have been cornered by, Raven was about the worst of them. Several years ago the demon had been butchering people all across the Northeast area. Men, women, children-anyone that crossed his path was slaughtered with the utmost brutality. Why did he do it? He admitted that it was just for fun. Not that Matt actually asked. He just tracked Raven down, taking Jeff with him when he thought he finally had the demon cornered. Things had not turned out the way he had planned though. Raven had known they were coming and led them into a trap. He and Viscera had nearly killed them until they managed to escape. Matt wasn't one to run away from a fight but he had lost so much blood that day Jeff had just dragged him out of there. He had gone back once he recovered but no sign of Raven had been found-not until now anyway.

"I missed _you_," Raven informed him. The demon had the most dangerous glint in his eye as one of his hands reached up to play with Matt's hair. "I really did Matt. It's so much less fun when I don't have a self righteous little bitch to torment." He twirled one finger into Matt's hair, tugging on it to try to get him to wince. "Where's that little brother of yours? Hmmm? Where is he?"

Matt refused to say a word. He just tried to twist himself out of Raven's grip and figure out how to get his hands on some kind of weapon that would actually do the trick against the demon. Last time his knife or the gun he had barely even made him bat an eye. He needed to try something bigger, like a sword or an axe to decapitate him but there weren't really any available. And given his already injured state, the odds of him realistically lasting more than a few seconds in a fight with Raven were so low even he couldn't deny them. The only sensible option he had was to retreat.

"Come on Matty, don't play hard to get." Raven's voice was way too sickeningly sweet for it's own good. Matt wasn't sure if he honestly thought he was fooling anyone with that tone or he was just amusing himself. "I know that little brother of yours has to be around here somewhere."

Matt still refused to say anything. The last time they had met, Jeff hadn't exactly been shy of hiding his fear, which was just fuel to Raven's fire. He fixated on the ones that gave it to him in spades-or in Matt's case, the ones he wanted to break into it.

A scowl slowly crossed Raven's face as he realized Matt wasn't going to speak up. "You gonna be that way? Fine. I guess we'll just have to play rough won't we?" He grabbed Matt's arm and broke it with one hard twist, smirking as Matt let out a scream of pain. "How about now Matty? You feel like talking now?"

Matt's knee shot up, nailing Raven right between the legs. Raven doubled over and Matt ran for it, clutching his broken arm against him. He didn't get very far. Raven quickly recovered from the blow and nailed him hard on the back of the head, sending him crashing face first on to the floor. He tried to catch himself with his good arm but failed, his nose breaking instantly as it smashed into the hard floor.

"Ooooh what's the matter Matty? I thought you wanted to play rough." Raven kicked Matt hard in the ribs as he tried to get up, laughing as he grunted in pain. "Are you having second thoughts? Is that it?" He kicked Matt again before reaching down and grabbing him by the hair once more. "That's really too bad because there's so SO much more I want to do with you."

Matt blindly tried to kick at Raven but it was easily blocked. The demon's head smashed into his face, nearly knocking him unconscious before he was flung away so hard that he went crashing through the window by the door, landing with a hard thud out on the front porch.

…

"Where the fuck are we going?" Adam asked. He and Jay were still carrying Steve, who was somewhat awake now but couldn't really do much because he had still yet to regain his bearings. Chris was in the lead with Mickie, who was clinging to him for dear life and Jeff and Amy brought up the rear, looking around for anything that could attack them. Things seemed quiet now but none of them believed that this was ending. They all had the feeling this was just a calm in the storm. They hadn't said it out loud to each other or even knew how they knew that but they did. They just fucking did.

"Fucking away," Chris replied.

"Away to where? Don't you think we kind of need an idea of where we're heading?"

"He's got a point," Jeff pointed out when Chris turned back to say something nasty to Adam. "We can't just keep running like this. We need a plan."

"Well why don't YOU come up with one then?" Chris shook his head and threw out the hand that wasn't holding on to Mickie. "Seriously. If you all can come up with something, then by all means, do it. Because I'm fucking lost."

There was a few moments of silence as the others tried to come up with something. "We should try getting out of town," Jay finally said. "Find somewhere safe."

"We'll need new wheels," Amy added. She looked around and cringed at how many wrecked cars there were. "One that's not totally fucked."

That was about as good of a plan they could possibly come up with so they began their search for a car. Finding a useable one was definitely easier said than done, though Jeff finally did find one that seemed to be in good condition still. It even had the keys in the ignition, though it hadn't been running this whole time-mostly do to the fact that the driver got his face ripped off before he could start the thing. "Got one!" Jeff yelled as he pulled the dead driver out of the car and pretty much threw him out of the way.

"Jeff…" Mickie shook her head and wrinkled her nose as she saw what he did.

"What?" He got in the driver's seat and turned the keys in the ignition, sighing in relief as it started right up. "It's not like it hurt him."

She just shook her head some more before being practically shoved into the car by Chris. Jeff waited until everyone was in and all buckled up before speeding off like a bat out of hell. "So…any ideas about where to go once we fucking get out of town?"

"Hospital," Amy replied. "Steve needs one."

"Do not," Steve grunted, his face contorting in pain as he tried to shift positions. "I'm fine."

"Bullshit you are!" Amy snapped. "You fucking need a hospital."

"Maybe we should try the one here…?" Adam suggested hesitantly.

Jay snorted and shook his head. "Look around dude. You really think there's a hospital _left_ after all this?"

Adam didn't say anything to that. He just sighed and leaned forward so he could turn on the radio. It came on but only static came from it. He frowned and tried another station. And then another. And then another. Every single radio station he tried just gave them static. "Well fuck," he muttered. "That's not good."

"Fuck no," Jeff agreed. He just switched the whole thing off because the static was just annoying. They drove in silence for awhile, Jeff biting his lips excessively and his grip on the steering wheel so tight his knuckles turned white. There were several frightening questions that were popping into his mind that he was trying to keep to himself so he didn't freak out the others. What if this wasn't just contained to where they were? What if this had spread into some sort of really massive attack? He tried to tell himself that he was just being paranoid and that wasn't possible, but he wasn't remotely convincing himself of that. This whole situation was just nuts and he had this gut feeling it was even bigger than they even knew about.

The others gawked at the carnage they drove past but Jeff forced himself to try to ignore them and keep his attention strictly on the road. He was having a hard time trying to get around all the bodies and small fires that littered their path. He managed though, at least for awhile. Eventually though, he came across a fallen tree that was blocking off the entire road and the only way around it was to drive into one of the nearby yards. Jeff started to do just that because it wasn't like there was anyone else around. The wheels of the car barely touched the sidewalk though before a body came flying out of the house in front of them. Jeff slammed on the brakes, his eyes widening and his jaw dropping as he realized it was Matt.

"Jeff what are you doing?" Amy asked. She was way in the back and Chris's head was blocking her way.

Jeff ignored her in favor of putting the car in park and getting out of it. As much ill will as he had towards Matt, it didn't change the fact that they were brothers and his first instinct was to be concerned at this point. "Matt! What the fuck?"

Matt groaned and slowly got up to his feet. His arm was clearly broken and his nose was pouring blood like a faucet. "Jeff-"

An arm shot through Matt's chest, the bloodied hand holding Matt's heart tightly in it. Jeff screamed and jumped back, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head as Matt's body dropped to the ground to reveal Raven right behind him.

"Hellooooo Jeffy…"

Jeff's feet became rooted to the spot. Fear paralyzed him to his very core. The others were all screaming for him to get into the car but he couldn't. He could only stare at the demon as he licked Matt's blood off his arm and tossed his heart up in the air like it was a tennis ball or something.

"Shit shit shit!" Adam crawled out of the car through the driver's side and practically threw Jeff in before getting back in and taking the driver's seat himself. Raven was on them in an instant, breaking the driver's side window with his hand so he could grab at Adam's neck. Jay sprang forward instantly, grabbing a shard of broken glass and jamming it into Raven's eye. Raven howled in pain and let go of Adam, allowing him to back the car up and get them speeding off the way they had just came.


	13. Voice of Reason

"Viscera's dead."

Bearer's brow furrowed while Mark didn't even so much as flinch as Glenn delivered the news. "What do you mean he's dead?" Bearer asked when Mark still made no move to react.

"I mean he got slaughtered about five ways to Sunday," Glenn replied bluntly. There wasn't really any other way to put it. Raven had found him in pieces all over the street and got a hold of Glenn because he sure as hell didn't want to pass the message along to Mark or Bearer. Hell Glenn didn't even want to do it but here he was, sucking it up and doing it anyway. "Raven says there's barely enough of him left to fill a bucket."

Bearer stiffened and adjusted the urn that was under his arm. "Have YOU been there to see it yourself?"

"Nooo…I've been busy." Glenn rolled his eyes at the look Bearer gave him for that. "YOU can go down there yourself if you want to see it so bad. I'm not stopping you." He looked at Mark, who was still standing there seemingly lost in his own little world. "Aren't you the LEAST bit concerned?"

"About what?" Mark was playing way too cool and Glenn found himself scowling and barely restraining the urge to knock him across the face.

"Well, first the guy who was supposed to be our Death got himself ripped apart and we still don't know who's running around under that hood and now Viscera's been killed. You don't think that's cause for concern?"

"If I thought the two events were related then yes." Mark shook his head at the look Glenn gave him for that comment. "We are going to suffer casualties before this is all said and done. Vis was vicious yes, but to think a group of mere hunters couldn't find a way to kill is stretching it."

"Yeah, but most hunters don't completely obliterate the fucking demons," Glenn argued.

"Unless they use a grenade."

"Where the fuck would they get a grenade?"

"How would I know? I've seen it done though. Clearly some of them have connections."

Glenn wasn't really sold on that argument. Something about this situation was wrong. He had seen what had happened to Alberto and the way Raven had described the scene with Viscera had way too many similarities to it to be a coincidence. Judging from the look on Bearer's face, he seemed to agree with him as well. So why wasn't Mark taking this more seriously? Was he so wrapped up in what he was doing that he couldn't see anything but what he wanted to see? Did he really not think these deaths were related at all or did he just not want them to be? That last one seemed more likely and it annoyed Glenn to no end. Of all times to ignore a threat this was NOT one of them. Not when they were just getting their plan in process.

Mark said something that Glenn missed and walked away and the fire demon shook his head and looked to Bearer for support. "Please tell me you agree with me here." Someone around here needed to see reason.

Bearer nodded curtly. "I do. Why he won't is beyond me. Usually he's smarter than this."

Glenn snorted loudly. "Don't give him TOO much credit. He's got us aligned with the fucking Horsemen. They'll fucking turn on us in a heartbeat if it suits them."

"Don't even get me started on that," Bearer said with a shake of his head. They both knew that Mark's thirst for power could override his intelligence at times. He had no concept of how to restrain himself. He wanted more all the time and he would do anything to get it, even if it wasn't the smartest thing to do. "I don't even know where the lot of them ran off to."

"Do you care?"

"I haven't decided yet." On the one hand he was glad to get them out of his hair because all three of them annoyed him, but on the other, that meant he hadn't the slightest clue about what they were currently up to. And with them, that was never a good thing.

"What should we do about Vis?"

"Go to the scene yourself. Check it over carefully because I KNOW that miserable heathen Raven didn't."

"And then what?"

"Report back to me and we will go from there. If there is someone after us I don't feel like listening to Mark and sitting back until more of us get picked off. We have to do something now."

…

"FUUUUCK FUCK FUCK STOP IT YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Bradshaw's screams echoed throughout the empty warehouse just four hundred miles away from where Mark, Bearer and Glenn were. He had been overseeing the last of the slaughter of the last still breathing humans in the town when he had been snatched up and dragged away against his will by Death. He had tried to fight but Death had easily restrained him and was having some fun with some hot pokers. "FUCK!" Bradshaw tried to yank his hands out of the chains but had no luck whatsoever. He was hanging from the chains that were attached the ceiling and his feet were dangling just a few inches above the ground. He had tried to kick at the figure but even the ones he managed to land had no effect.

"Where are they?" Death growled lowly, twisting one of the pokers deeper into Bradshaw's body.

"I don't know!" Bradshaw choked back another scream and shook his head desperately. "I don't know I swear!"

"LIAR!" Death grabbed another poker and jammed it into Bradshaw's side. "The other FUCKING horsemen! WHERE. ARE. THEY?" He knew that if anyone on the lower end of the totem pole would know, it was Bradshaw. That was why he was there. If he was going to start taking out the ones at the top he wanted to start with a Horsemen because…well, because he did. He didn't exactly have a rational thought process anymore. He had so many he wanted to slaughter that he was just blindly following the instincts from his mad mind.

"Can't you sense them?" Bradshaw was trying not to pass out from the pain because he didn't want to know what Death would do to wake him back up. "I thought you guys could-"

"You know NOTHING!" Death grabbed his chin and squeezed until he yelped in pain. "You understand? You know NOTHING except for where they are and you WILL FUCKING TELL ME!" Another hot poker into Bradshaw's body and he was done. He was ready to talk.

"I don't…I don't know where they ALL are." He swallowed hard and rushed to get the words out. "I know where Pestilence is. That's it I swear. I know where she is."

"Where?"

"Italy. She's taking Europe but I know she fucking loves Italy. She should be there."

Death tilted his head to the side, trying to see if he was lying at all. He determined that he wasn't and he started to turn, as if he was just going to leave.

"You'll never get away with this." Of course Bradshaw had to start talking shit now. He thought he was just going to be left to rot. "They'll get you. They'll fucking get you and you're going to fucking regret-"

Death didn't wait to hear any more. He turned back around and shoved his fist through Bradshaw's stomach, pushing his hand past all the internal organs and wrapping his hand around the spine. He yanked it out with one good hard tug, staring at it for a moment before throwing it down to the ground. He disappeared without another word, leaving Bradshaw's limp body hanging from the ceiling and another baby doll sitting safely on a crate in the corner.


	14. Little Pretty Doll

The silence that filled the car reeked of desperation and hopelessness. They had been driving for what felt like forever, trying to find a safe place that didn't seem to exist anymore. They had driven to the next town to try to get Steve to the hospital only to find that it was just as bad there as it was where they came from. So they went to the next town…and then the next…and the next and the next and then the next. Everywhere they went was just completely destroyed and they nearly had gotten killed several times by demons trying to take over the car. This was a completely freaky situation, to say the least and Adam had no idea where to even go next. He was just driving aimlessly, hoping somebody else would come up with some kind of plan. So far though, nobody was offering anything. Looked like it was up to him to say something.

"You know, I can't keep driving all night long." He was trying to keep his tone casual, hopelessly trying not to give into the utter fear that had risen up inside of him. "Either we need to stop somewhere or someone else has to take the wheel."

"Where would we even stop at?" Chris asked. "You see anywhere to go?"

"No…"

"Well we can't keep driving if we don't have any idea where to go," Mickie said. "We're wasting gas and I don't know if there's a station anywhere around here to fill up again."

"And if we don't stop someplace safe then we're going to be walking into a certain death situation," Jay snapped.

"But we will have to eat…" as Amy said that her stomach growled loudly.

Chris rolled his eyes. "THAT'S what you're thinking about right now? Food?"

She gave him a dirty look. "I haven't ate in forever shut up."

"Pig." He got a nice hard smack for that. "Hey!" He went to smack her back when Steve (who had regained consciousness awhile ago) grabbed his arm and yanked it back.

"Enough," the older man grunted, giving Chris a scathing look to stop any argument he could have tried to offer. "Adam, find us a place to pull over. I need to get the fuck out of this car."

Adam nodded along, deciding to listen to Steve since he was the one everyone else usually deferred to and, injured or not, he could probably kick his ass if he didn't listen. "Like a hotel?"

"Too big. Go for a house. The smaller the better so we can have an easier time during lookout duties. Last thing we need is some sumbitch things getting the better of us because we didn't see them coming."

Adam nodded, perfectly okay with that plan. The others were nodding too to show their support-all except one that was. Jeff had remained absolutely silent, not putting in a single word about what should be done. He hadn't even spoken since they had managed to lose Raven. He had just been staring out the window, not even looking over at him. They had tried getting something out of him several times but so far had been completely unsuccessful. "What do you think Jeff?" He didn't think it would hurt to try again. "You think that's a good idea?"

Jeff didn't even acknowledge that he had heard a word Adam said. He just kept staring out the window with an unreadable expression on his face. Adam looked back at the others through the rearview mirror, trying to ask them to try again without actually saying it. Amy was the one who got the message first and she leaned forward and started whispering so quietly into Jeff's ear that even Adam didn't catch what she said. It didn't make a bit of difference though. Jeff remained silent and kept his gaze at the window, making her sigh and reluctantly sit back and just give up for now. They would just have to keep trying. It wasn't like he could really stay silent forever…at least Adam hoped not.

They drove for nearly another hour before Adam finally found a house they could pull up to. Despite the fact that he was injured Steve insisted on leading the search through the house to check and see if there were any creatures waiting to kill them. There wasn't; just one dead body that they respectfully covered up with a blanket and closed the door, deciding to stay the hell out of that room.

"Alright, here's the plan," Steve said as Mickie tried her best to bandage him up. Not an easy task at all considering he wasn't the most well behaved of patients. "We're going to eat and pack up any food or any other useful supply to take along with us. Then I want two of us standing guard for a few hours while the rest of us sleep, then I want two of us to get up and relieve the first two-and so on and so forth for the night. One guard down here doing rounds, one upstairs in case anything climbs up the house and tries to get in that way. And I'm going to try to make some calls and see how far this thing has spread. Understand?"

They all nodded wordlessly. Steve waved them off and all but Jeff headed towards the kitchen. Jeff headed towards the door, his expression as unreadable as ever. Adam frowned, hesitating for a moment before following him. Amy tried to pull him back for some reason but he shrugged her off and kept right on going. "Jeff!"

Jeff stopped and turned back to look at him. "What?" Finally some acknowledgement.

"What are you doing?" Adam asked.

"Going to keep watch."

"You're not going to eat?"

"Not hungry." Jeff tried to walk off once more but on impulse Adam stopped him by grabbing his wrist. Jeff's entire body stiffened up and Adam put his other hand up innocently.

"Whoa whoa whoa…I'm not going to hurt you." Adam shook his head, trying to be reassuring. "You just…you should eat you know? At least a little something. And you know, you don't have to keep watch. The rest of us can handle it you don't have to do it."

"And what am I supposed to do?" Jeff asked. "Am I supposed to be falling apart right now? You think I should go do that?"

"Nobody would blame you. I mean, he was your brother…"

"Biologically? Yeah he was. But let me tell you something: he stopped being my brother a LONG time ago." Jeff wrenched his wrist out of Adam's grip, a flash of anger crossing his features. As fast as that bit of emotion came though, it disappeared yet again and Jeff trudged off on his own, leaving Adam standing there alone to sigh and shake his head.

…

Michelle hummed under her breath as she browsed through the racks of clothing in front of her. Mark and the others would give her hell if they knew she was shopping right now but she really didn't give a shit. She had wiped out about half of Europe with the plague and the other half was either in the process of dying or would be very soon. She had done her damn job and she was going to reward herself, everyone else be damned.

"Hmmm…" She picked out a skimpy little light blue spaghetti strapped dress off the rack and examined it closely. "You guys got anything a little longer? I'm not a floozy you know." She looked over at the sales associate, who was laying dead on the floor, her mouth and eyes opened in horror and her face covered in boils that were still dripping with pus. "Oh damn. I was hoping you'd last a little longer." Deciding to just try on the dress, she walked over to the dressing room, kicking the woman's body as she went. "Let's see…" She locked the dressing room door behind her and hung the dress up on the hook so she could start to get undressed. Before she could get anything off though, the lights all went out, leaving her in total darkness. "Mark?" Her first thought was that it was him since he did like to be dramatic and make an entrance. However, she got no response when she called out his name.

"Mark?" she tried again. She opened the door and stepped out, her eyes adjusting to the darkness faster than a human's would. "Mark is that you?" An eerie chill was going up her spine. "Famine? War? Damn it are YOU two doing this?" She put her hands on her hips and scowled. "If this is your idea of a joke-"

The lights suddenly came back on and she found herself pretty much blinded on the spot. "Mother FUCKER!" She blinked several times and shook her head, managing to regain her sight after a couple of minutes. When she did she found a little baby doll sitting up on the table in front of her, its big blue eyes staring right at her. "What the fuck…

"_Little pretty doll, dressed in red tonight. It's the witching hour, in the dead of night. Come on pretty doll. Dance away with me. If you're still asleep, let me in your dream._"

Michelle whirled around and saw Death standing there, just a few feet away from her. And it wasn't any replacement Death they were supposed to have. It was the original-the LAST one she wanted to see. "Oh fuck…"

"_Little pretty doll. Tell me little tales, of your fantasies, of your little friends…_" Death's voice trailed off as he began to sway from side to side. "I had a baby doll once. You remember her don't you? She was the prettiest one, my Baby Doll was. So pretty…you could only wish to be so pretty. "

"How the hell are you back?" Michelle asked, her voice hardening up and sounding tougher than she actually felt at the moment. "You're supposed to be DEAD!"

"I AM dead!" Death angrily ripped down his hood and scowled. "But did you think I could REST? Did you think this was OVER? You took EVERYTHING from me!"

"You BETRAYED us!" Michelle hissed. "You were one of US! YOU were supposed to stand alongside us when we ran this whole place to the ground alongside Mark but NOOOOOO! You had to fall in love and LEAVE! Not only that, but a HUMAN? A fucking little ugly bitch that-"

She never got to finish the rest of her sentence. Death had his scythe out and he swung it, catching Michelle between the legs and ripping upwards, slicing her in half. The two halves fell to the floor with loud spats and he nodded satisfactorily before stepping over the mess and sitting on the table.

"You're not ugly Baby Doll," he cooed, picking up the doll and cradling it in his arms like it was real. To him, it was right now. It was his Baby Doll. "No you're not you're so beautiful. I don't know why you can't believe me and listen to people like HER. She's a fucking ugly bitch who's jealous. They're all jealous Baby Doll they are. They can't ever be as beautiful so they tear you down. Down down down doooowwwnnn…." His voice trailed off as he sniffled. "I'll get them all Baby Doll. I promise." He gently kissed the doll's face before setting it down nice and pretty and disappearing without a trace.


	15. Band Together

Jeff's grip on his weapon was so tight that his knuckles were starting to hurt and his palms were getting sweaty but he still didn't let up on it. He didn't want to relax. He couldn't relax, not for a second. Some demon or something could come flying at him at any moment, wanting to rip him apart before going in and doing the same thing to the others. He had to be ready. He couldn't let himself be distracted by things. Especially what happened to Matt. That was the last thing that needed to be on his mind. It shouldn't have even been bothering him. It wasn't like he hadn't known Matt would have come to an end like that. That was how the life of a hunter ended up about 99.9 percent of the time. Matt himself wouldn't have had it any other way. So why was it bothering him so much? Why did he feel like he should have tried to save Matt? Not like Matt would have done the same for him. Matt wouldn't have cared to. All the times Jeff had been saved by Matt, it usually had happened as a consequence of Matt doing something that he was doing anyway. Killing the demons were more important than saving someone's life. Just the way Matt's mind had worked.

He did feel bad for the way he had snapped at Adam. He hadn't meant to come off like an asshole. Adam just didn't understand. He didn't want to mourn for Matt. He didn't want to sit in there and try to eat and have everyone stare at him like he was going to either fall apart or go off like a bomb at any minute. He had gotten his fill of it in the car. Even Amy had done it. They were all expecting him to do something, anything…he didn't want to though. Matt hadn't really cared for him. Maybe he did when they were kids but that had pretty much been another lifetime ago. The brother he had loved had died the night their parents did. A huge part of him felt relieved that Matt was gone because it meant that he was truly away from him now…and then the rest of him felt guilty for even thinking like that. _Ugh I CAN'T keep doing this to myself…_

"Jeff?"

Jeff looked back and saw that Adam was standing there with a sandwich in his hand. "Amy said you liked ham and cheese." He held out the sandwich and smiled sheepishly. "I mean I know you said you weren't hungry but um…I figured that if you were insisting on guarding us you need to keep up your strength?" Yes that actually came out as a form of a question. Wasn't supposed to but he found himself getting intimidated by the look Jeff was giving him. "I'm not going to make you eat it or anything but um…yeah I just thought-"

"It's fine," Jeff said. Now he just felt even more guilty and he took the sandwich to try to make things less awkward. "I guess I could use something." He took a big bite and nodded satisfactorily. While he hadn't been admitting it to himself, it did feel good to eat. His last meal felt like it had come a lifetime ago. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Adam about walked away when he suddenly stopped himself. "Do you um…you want help?" He shoved his hands into his pockets and nodded towards the door. "With the watching?"

"I got this covered," Jeff assured him.

"You sure?" Adam was completely stalling and he knew that Jeff knew it by the uncomfortable look that was growing on his face.

"Yeah. I'm sure."

…

"So what did you find out?" Amy asked Steve. She and the others were done eating and Jay was keeping watch while Adam tried to make awkward conversation with Jeff and Mickie and Chris tried to get some sleep. Amy knew she should be trying to get some rest too but she didn't see how she could sleep. Not at a time like this. "Is it just us-"

"It's not just us kid," Steve said with a sigh. He hated to be the bearer of that bad news but he knew out of all of them she had the most reasonable head on her shoulders and he could tell her before the others. She could help him to keep the others from freaking out too bad, even if it was majorly warranted at this juncture. "It's everywhere. The other hunters that I could get a hold of were barely hanging on as it was. The demons are slaughtering everybody they can get their hands on."

"But why?"

"Undertaker and the Ministry. Before shit started to get really crazy, that weasel Cole-"

"God I hate him."

Steve smirked. "We all do. But anyway, he told me Taker's aligned himself with the Four Horsemen."

"Wait…not THOSE Horsemen." She shook her head in denial. "Not-"

"Oh yeah. THOSE Horsemen. Of the fucking Apocalypse."

"…We're so fucked." Normally she wasn't one to get overly pessimistic about things but she couldn't help herself here.

"I know." Steve rubbed the top of his bald head and let out a defeated sigh.

"What the hell do we do? I mean, do we try to stop them?"

"With just us? Hell no. We'd be taken out in like three seconds flat."

"Well WHAT do we do then? I mean, we just can't sit here and hide. We have to do SOMETHING."

"I'm aware. But beyond going out and trying to find other hunters to team up with-"

"Well let's do THAT!" Amy's voice spiked out of nerves and she cringed at the sound of it before nodding sheepishly. "Let's do that. I mean, strength in numbers right? That's what we need. I mean we just can't sit here and wait to die. We gotta fight…right?"

"Right," Steve confirmed. That was the only way he could do things. Maybe it was suicidal considering what they were up against but it was the only thing they could really do. They couldn't just let Taker take over without some kind of fight.

"So who's the closest guy you know to us?"

"Dwayne." He smirked at the look that came over her face. "Yeah I'm not too thrilled about seeing that sumbitch either. But he's the only one that close to us distance wise that's still alive…well at least for now anyway." Once upon a time, Dwayne and him had actually been partners of sorts. It had been way way back when they had first gotten mixed out on this whole hunting business. They had thought there would be strength in numbers…and then they discovered they really couldn't stand each other. They tried to co-exist; they really did. But their personal differences bubbled over in short order and after nearly getting each other killed on a number of occasions, they decided to go their separate ways. They had crossed paths a number of times over the years and none of those meetings had gone well. Dwayne was really one of the last people that Steve wanted to turn to but at this point, he was their only option. _Desperate times call for desperate fucking measures…_

…

"Sooo…are we still not worried?" Glenn asked as he surveyed the scene in front of him. He was starting to get tired of looking at bloody remains of the people that were supposed to be their allies. Kind of depressing and really annoying considering that NOW Mark suddenly decided to care…for all the wrong reasons. Mark and Michelle had been fucking for like ever and he favored her above pretty much everyone else, despite her horrid personality (and the whole Pestilence thing…how that could turn anyone on was beyond Glenn). The rest of them though, they were more concerned for the right reasons, though Wade and Phil weren't really showing it. Not only were they down Alberto, Michelle and Viscera but in Glenn's hunt for Raven to see if he knew anything about Viscera's death, he had ended up finding Bradshaw's body as well. It was abundantly clear that someone was gunning for them personally.

"You know, I gotta say, this is probably the best I've ever seen her look," Phil said, unable to keep his smartass comments to himself. Wade sniggered and the look Mark sent their way promised all sorts of death.

"You think this is funny?" Mark took such a threatening step towards the two of them that Bearer had to quickly move between them to try to diffuse the situation. "You really think this is funny? LOOK what happened to her!"

"Look what's BEEN happening," Glenn chimed in as he continued to look around. "We're getting picked off in case you haven't noticed."

"I'VE noticed," Bearer said haughtily. He adjusted the urn under his arm and glared back and forth between Mark and Wade and Phil. "This is NO time for bickering and throwing temper tantrums. We MUST take a stand and stop this madness now before we end up dead too."

"Well who the bloody hell could even do this?" Wade asked. "Who would even have the kind of power-"

"I don't care who it is," Mark snarled. "I want their head on a silver platter this INSTANT." His eyes turned black and the windows in the room began to rattle, threatening to break at any moment. "You hear me."

"Brother…" Glenn grabbed the baby doll that looked just like the other ones he had found at the scenes of Raven's and Bradshaw's death. The dolls had given him a suspicion about who was behind this and if he was right, this was all kinds of not good. "I think that's going to be a LOT easier said than done."


	16. Burn

Mark stared at the little doll that he was holding in his hands like it was some kind of alien species. "You sure you saw these at all the places?" he asked as he played with the hem of the doll's dress. Glenn had just told him about the stuff he saw and who he thought was behind it and Paul definitely concurred with him on it. Phil and Wade looked skeptical and Mark wasn't quite sure what to think at the moment. He sure as hell didn't like the theory Glenn and Paul had in their heads but as much as he didn't want to admit it, it was the theory that made the most sense.

Glenn gave him a really irritated look. "Would I have said anything if I wasn't sure?"

"Well I personally think you've got a paranoid streak in you," Phil commented while Wade nodded along. "It's one of the many things that make you so delightfully unpleasant to be around."

The response he got to that was a fireball aimed right at his head, which he had to dive out of the way to escape. The clothing rack behind him caught on fire and Wade let out a string of curses as he dived out of the way as well and Paul threw the hand that was not holding the urn up in exasperation.

"That is NOT the way to behave right now!" he scolded, glaring at Glenn as he did so. "Childish antics aren't going to solve anything."

"Yeah," Phil chimed in, a smug look coming over his face as Glenn scowled angrily. "This isn't time to act like a child."

"That goes DOUBLE for YOU!" Bearer growled, whirling around to give Phil a withering glare. Phil made a face before going back to chat with Wade. Bearer shook his head in disgust before turning to Mark. "And YOU-I TOLD you to leave Death well enough alone. He cast his lot with the harlot which was HIS problem, not ours. We would have taken care of BOTH of them at the same time as everyone else if you had left well enough alone but NO! YOU had to make it personal. YOU had to target them and now look what's happening! We're being picked off one by one!"

Mark just scowled. Deep down he knew that Bearer was right but he sure as fuck didn't want to admit that. What was the good in admitting it now anyway? It wouldn't actually fix anything. "Would you just be quiet?" he said irritably. "That's not helping either."

"Might I make a helpful suggestion?" Wade asked, interjecting himself before Bearer could say anything else. "Why don't we just find the wanker and take him out again? It wasn't that hard the LAST time we did it."

"He was HUMAN last time," Bearer reminded him. "Not the case this time."

"Oh who bloody cares? He's been pulling bloody hit and runs like some kind of coward. It don't matter what he is now. He's outnumbered. We can take him." Wade saw that Bearer didn't look entirely convinced so he went over to Mark, who looked like he was being swayed by that logic. "Come on. We can take him. He's had the element of surprise until now. We can take him out."

All eyes were on Mark now. He glanced at all of them before nodding at Wade. "Send the word out. The instant he's spotted I want somebody reporting to me and the rest after him."

"You really think they can take him?" Glenn asked, unable to hide the exasperation in his voice.

"No…but they'll slow him down until WE get there."

…

"They're after you you know."

Death didn't look up at the person speaking to him. He knew it was just one of Satan's little messengers. This one was…Victoria? Was that it? Maybe. He couldn't keep track there was so many. Didn't really matter to him anyway. Everything but his mission at hand was irrelevant.

Victoria waited a little longer for some kind of response but she didn't get one. Sighing in irritation, she popped her hip out to the left and folded her arms across her chest. "Did you hear what I said? They KNOW it's you buddy. Your little uh…" she eyed the doll in his hand like it was a cockroach or something "calling card gave you away." She still got no response, which was maddening. They were standing up on a roof somewhere and he was just sitting there, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Lucifer had told her that he had gone mad and was slipping in and out of funks at an alarming rate. "You got a good start I admit. Couple Ministry members, Pestilence-you've got them rattled. But they know it's you now and they're ALL coming for you. War, Famine, The Ministry, the army-you're outnumbered by the thousands. Maybe even millions." She still wasn't getting anything out of him. All he was doing was staring at the little baby doll he was holding and in irritation she tried to rip it away. "Oh would you just-"

Snarling he grabbed her wrist and broke it with one good hard twist. Her eyes widened in shock and she dropped to her knees as she screamed in pain. He finally turned to look at her but she couldn't see his face still. If she had been human his touch would have killed her on the spot. With the more standard variety demons he could touch them without killing them as long as he willed it to be so. "I have the situation under control," he hissed, dragging her over to the edge of the roof so she could look down. The streets below them were filled with hooded figures going as far as the eye could see in either direction. They were Reapers. Death's own army. Usually called upon when some sort of huge disastrous event went down. Wars, natural disasters, terrorist events…this was more than Victoria had ever seen at one place at one time.

"It don't matter what they know," Death growled. "Let them come. Let them ALL come." He placed his other hand over her chest and this time it was the killing touch. Her chest imploded on contact and he threw her body off the rooftop, watching it as it fell with a loud splat on the concrete below.

…

The next morning Amy found herself up in the front seat of the car, squished between Steve who was driving and Mickie, who was flipping through some magazines she had found in the house they had been staying at. Jeff, Adam, Chris and Jay were all in the back, bickering about something that she didn't even want to know about. Adam had tried to offer to drive since Steve still wasn't in the greatest of shape but the older man had absolutely insisted that he could do it. It was just as well really. Steve was the only one who knew exactly where they were going and he would have only gotten pissed off with having to bark out directions in the passenger's seat.

Sighing in boredom Amy leaned forward and started fiddling with the radio even though they weren't getting anything coming in. Every station was dead. "Fuck." She looked down and noticed that there was an I-pod adapter set up but no I-pod in it. "Anyone got their I-pod?" she asked hopefully.

"I do!" Chris handed his up to her. "Always keep it in my pocket."

"Oh no don't turn his crap on," Steve pleaded. "Not his heavy metal bullshit."

"Sorry dude." Amy went ahead and hooked it up and started playing it. It was of course filled with heavy metal music, a lot of it stuff she hadn't even heard before but whatever. It was better than complete silence. "Can you pass me one of those?" she asked Mickie, nodding at the magazines she was holding.

"Sure." Mickie handed over one she had already finished.

"Thanks." Amy started flipping through it, noticing that this in particular was a tribute magazine to the late Mindy Stratus. Mindy Stratus had been signed to Jive Records at the age of 16 and by seventeen her band Stratusfear was taking the world by storm. Despite being Canadian she had become America's Sweetheart. Nobody could go anywhere without seeing her face plastered on something or seeing her music videos somewhere or hearing her songs on the radio. Her wedding to James Lawson had been highly publicized and her pregnancy had created headlines for weeks-and her murder even longer than that.

She kept flipping through the pages, stopping when she got to all the photos taken of Mindy and James together. Nobody knew a whole lot about James. Mindy said in interviews that he was from Vegas, which was where they met and had settled down at after their wedding. He had been an incredibly handsome man, there was no denying that. He was also ridiculously bigger than his rockstar wife. Mindy had only been four foot ten…he himself had been nearly seven feet tall. She looked like a little doll compared to him, especially when he carried her around (which was quite often really). Yet it was clear even in just pictures that they had been totally in love. Amy found herself smiling weakly at it. She had been in love before but it had never been like that. Then again, she had fallen in love with Matt Hardy of all people; god knew he wasn't into hearts and flowers or anything like that.

She flipped through the magazine some more before closing it and looking over at Steve. He was looking worriedly at how much gas they had left. It wasn't a whole hell of a lot. They were starting to reach the point where they were running on fumes. "You see a place to pull over?" she asked as she looked around.

"Don't want to pull over," Steve grumbled. "We gotta try to get a little-"

"Further?" Amy snorted at that. "We go too much further we're going to like anally fuck ourselves with a steel pipe."

"Whoa!" Jay gave Amy an absolutely appalled look. "What the FUCK dude? Imagery not needed!"

"There's an exit right over there," Mickie said, pointing to just up ahead. "Sign says there's a gas station let's go for it."

Steve grumbled unhappily under his breath but pulled off the road anyway. The gas station was only about a half a mile away thankfully. Amy was sure they were going to break down on the way but they managed to make it. "Who's going in to pay?" Adam asked innocently, which made everyone look at him like he just went insane.

"You really think anyone is still alive here to pay?" Chris asked. "Come on man. Look around. We're alone out here." He seemed to be right about that. They had pulled into some rinky dink town in the middle of nowhere. A couple of the buildings they had passed were burnt to the ground and the rest looked completely abandoned. It looked like the demons had wiped the place completely clean.

"We should go inside though," Jay said. "See if there's anything to eat."

That sounded good to Amy. The house they had stayed at hadn't had the best of snack foods to take along so she could actually get something she liked.

Steve nodded. "Chris, Amy, Jay, you go inside. Jeff, Mickie and I will keep watch why Adam pumps the gas."

"And why do I get gas pumping duties exactly?" Adam asked.

"Because I said so that's why. Now get moving."

Adam grumbled something under his breath but got out of the car along with the rest of them. Amy followed Chris and Jay inside, a sword clutched tightly in her hand as she went. The hairs on the back of her neck were starting to stand up. She felt like they were being watched. Not a great feeling by any means. She tried to push it aside though and started looking around the little convenience store, heading straight for the snack aisle when she saw it. "Someone grab some bags," she said. "So we can load this st-" She stopped mid-sentence when she heard a low growling sound. Her heart dropped somewhere in her stomach. "Guys did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Chris asked. He was heading back to the coolers to grab them something to drink. "I didn't hear anything."

"I did," Jay said. He had been approaching the bathroom but he had stopped in his tracks. "It sounded like it was coming from in-" He didn't even get to finish the sentence. The bathroom door opened and out stepped a demon. Blue, leather looking skin with some kind of ring hanging out its nostrils, stringy brown hair and an armor looking vest on, the thing stood about a foot taller than Jay did. Jay tried to jump back but was grabbed by the throat and lifted up into the air.

"HEY!" Chris dropped the drink he had grabbed and rushed at the demon. One swift backhand sent him head first into the nearest cooler, knocking him silly. Amy came next, raising her sword and swinging for the head. The demon knocked the sword out of her hand and then swiped at her head. She managed to duck just in time and raise her foot to kick it between the legs. It dropped Jay and she punched it in the face before going for her sword. It recovered fast though, grabbing her by the hair and flinging her across the room. She hit the wall behind the counter and fell to the floor in a heap.

…

"Guys…I think something's wrong," Jeff said as he looked at the store. Amy, Jay and Chris hadn't come back out yet and something felt off to him. He could swear he was hearing something but he couldn't tell what it was.

"How do you know?" Adam asked. He was just finishing putting the gas in the tank and was looking back towards the store himself. Steve was already heading towards it himself while Mickie was sitting back in her seat, her body turned sideways so her legs could lay stretched out of the car.

Jeff just shook his head and followed Steve. Adam, tired of being left out of this kind of stuff just because he wasn't a hunter like the rest of them, put the pump back and followed them as well. Mickie almost got up to follow them but then stayed put, figuring someone needed to watch the car. She stretched out even more, unaware of the huge, bald headed figure watching them all from the distance.

…

"Get it!" Jay shouted. "Get it get it get it!"

"I'm TRYING!" Chris shouted back. "It's not exactly like killing a spider you know!"

Amy groaned and tried to push herself back up to her feet. From the sounds of it, the fight wasn't going very well. Fuck. She needed to get back out there. She didn't have a weapon though which sucked. She about got up and went out there without one anyway when she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. A second look revealed it to be a gun. She quickly grabbed it and checked it. Loaded. The people here got robbed a lot? Maybe. Didn't matter. This worked perfectly for her. She got back up to her feet just as Chris and Jay got thrashed to the floor and Jeff, Adam and Steve were coming to the rescue. "GET DOWN!"

Steve and Jeff dropped down and she fired, blowing the demon's brains out with one shot. The demon's body dropped to the ground and the boys all stared at it incredulously before looking at her. She grinned sheepishly and shrugged her shoulders. "What?"

Chris just shook his head. "Nothing. We're just basking in the glow of your badassness."

She grinned. "Yeah…as well you should."

…

Glenn stared at the girl just sitting in the car, little flames shooting up in his hands as she continued to not notice him. Mark had insisted they stay on course, cutting their path of destruction and have Death come to them. Not the brightest of plans really but what could be expected out of Mark? It was whatever at this point. Bearer was trying to track the son of a bitch down but so far, no luck. Glenn had tried himself but he hadn't fared much better. It was like Death had fallen off the face of the fucking earth-which was why he was here, bothering with small time shit like this. Maybe the whole letting Death come to them thing wouldn't be so bad. He wanted this shit settled and he would actually try to settle it, unlike Mark, who couldn't pull his own head out of his own ass these days.

The girl in the car finally looked over at him and froze, her eyes widening in fright. Glenn smirked, the flames in his hand becoming a giant ball that shot out her way. She tried to jump out of the car but she didn't move fast enough. The flames hit the car at full force, causing it flip up in the air and land upside down as it engulfed her in an inferno.

…

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Adam yelled as they saw the car go up in flames. They had just been about to go back outside when it happened and they fell back in shock.

"MICKIE!" Jeff ran outside with Amy right on his heels even though it was clearly too late. There was no way she survived that. Amy looked around, seeing Glenn standing there, flames shooting up out of his hands. Without even thinking she raised the gun and began to fire. Each bullet hit its mark, but he didn't go down, much less die from it. He stumbled back a bit and then came closer, the flames growing larger in his hands.

"AMY!" Steve shouted, trying to pull her back. They were fucked. There was no where to go. They sure as hell wouldn't be able to outrun fire and even if they ran back inside, Kane could just set the whole place on fire and incinerate them all.

Amy shot the gun again, this time hitting Kane right between the eyes. He dropped down to his knees with that one, the flames getting smaller but he still didn't died. She tried to fire again…and nothing. She was out of bullets. "FUCK!"

"Come on," Chris said, grabbing her by the back of the shirt. "Let's go let's go let's go let's-WHOA!" He skidded to a halt when hooded figures popped out of nowhere. There were hundreds of them, all just standing there and looking at Kane. "What the-"

"DON'T touch them!" Steve hissed, shoving Jay and Adam back inside the gas station. "Just get in here!"

"What are th-" Chris didn't get to finish the question. Steve grabbed him, Amy and Jeff and pushed them all inside before slamming the door behind them. "Just get back," he said, waving them away. "We can escape out the back…I hope."

"What are they?" Chris managed to ask this time.

"Reapers. Servants of Death."

"What the fuck do they want?" Adam asked.

"Hopefully not us but I don't want to stick around and find out. Let's MOVE!"

…

Glenn slowly rose up to his feet, wiping the blood off his forehead and looking around at all the reapers. He was completely surrounded. There was at least a hundred of them, maybe even more. He smirked, licking the blood off his fingers as he looked around. He knew Death was around here somewhere. "Where are you?" he growled. He took a step forward, trying to peer into their hoods to see their faces. He knew Death was around here somewhere. He wouldn't just send his flunkies to him and not come himself. "Come on, where is he?" Flames danced out of his fingertips as he continued to look around. "I know he's here."

The reapers made no move to respond and in return he incinerated the two nearest to him. "Deaaaaaath," he called out lazily. "Come out come out come out wherever you areeeeeee." He waited and got no response. "Come on now. I know you're here." Still nothing. "Deeeeeath-oh wait, I'm sorry, I forgot you weren't HIM anymore." He chuckled lowly. "Lawwwwwsoooooon. Oh Lawwwwwsooooon." He couldn't see him now but he could feel anger rolling towards him in waves. "Jaaaames…or what did SHE call you? Ohhh that's right. Jaaaamieeee-"

He was hit from the side, falling to the ground from a nice hard right hook. He just laughed though and looked up at the towering figure above him. Death had lowered his hood to reveal James's face. The once smooth handsome face had been contorted by his rage and his once piercing hazel eyes were just death.

"A sucker punch?" Glenn shook his head. "I expected better from you."

James snorted. "Expected better?" He shook his head. "Expected better? Really? After EVERYTHING you expected better?"

Glenn shrugged. "You know, that shit was Mark and the Horsemen's idea. They-"

"I don't give a FUCK who planned it," James snarled. "YOU were there. YOU put your hands on MY wife you fucking think I fucking care whose IDEA it was do fucking think-" James started to go for Kane's throat when he got a nice fireball right to the face. His robe went up in flames next and Glenn got back up to his feet to watch him burn. Only that wasn't exactly what happened. James backed up a few steps, looking like the Human Torch for a few moments before the fire merely died out on its own. James shook the ashes out of his hair and looked at Glenn who was scowling. Beyond those ashes, there was no sign that he had ever been touched.

"What?" James laughed but there was no humor in it. "Did you REALLY think that was going to work?"

Glenn went for it again but James charged at him, spearing him so hard they both went flying back several feet. Glenn hit the ground first but kept rolling with the momentum to try to gain the advantage. Their fists hit each other repeatedly, smashing their faces in. He had to get the scythe. It wasn't in James's hands but he knew damn well that he had it on him. He always did. If he got it he could kill him. Only way to really do it.

James's hands went for his throat but a burst of flames hit him right in his eyes, blinding him long enough for Glenn to get a foot up under him and kick him off. James kept rolling, trying to regain his eyesight as Glenn advanced towards him. "Looks like it worked NOW!" he said mockingly. He kicked James in the ribs before going for the scythe that he knew had to be under that robe. He did end up getting it-though not in the way he intended to. The instant he grabbed James by the scruff of the neck the blade was buried deep into his stomach. He dropped to his knees as James yanked it out and got up to his own feet.

"Fucker…" James growled as he swung the scythe, taking Kane's head off at the same moment as the gas pumps themselves went up in flames. The whole place blew in a split second and he was blown back as Kane's head hit the ground right next to his body.


	17. The Only Hope

With the car completely destroyed Jeff and the others had to just start going on foot. They ran for quite awhile, putting as much distance in between them and the gas station as they possibly could. They weren't being followed. Once they had to stop running to catch their breath they were able to realize that. None of them were able to really say anything though. What could even be said? Mickie was dead. She had gotten blown the fuck away in a fiery blaze by a demon they hadn't been able to kill. Steve knew it was Kane and he had been a member of the Ministry of Darkness, but he couldn't really relay this information off to the others at the moment. His lungs were on fire he needed to find a way to breathe again before he could even think about talking.

"Anyone else feel like shit?" Adam asked, breaking the silence.

"Why was she still in the car?" Amy asked. "Why did you leave her there why-"

"We didn't tell her to stay," Steve said in between gasps for air. He really wasn't as young as the others so their running had sadly taken a lot more out of him. "We heard the shit going down and started going in. I thought I saw her following us-"

"She was," Jeff said in a quiet voice. He was already forcing himself to go completely numb because the pain he was feeling in his chest was too much. Unlike with Matt, there was no conflict about the way he felt over Mickie's passing. She had been his friend. His first friend outside of Amy and the first one he had been able to make on his own. After years spent isolated from the rest of the world with Matt, she had seen through his awkwardness and supposed unfriendliness and had become his friend. Sure she had pushed for it more than him at first but that made her mean all the more to him. She had introduced him to Chris and Jay and Adam, giving him ties to keep him from going back to the comfort that was being miserable under Matt. "She stopped though. I guess she thought she should stay with the car…" Hindsight was 20/20 and oh how he wished he could have grabbed Mickie and pulled her inside with him. All of this could have been stopped. He could have stopped it.

Amy saw the look on Jeff's face and took his hand in hers, squeezing it tightly. "We should keep going." She didn't mean to sound insensitive but they didn't have time to stand there and grieve. They had to get moving. "How much further do we have?"

Steve glanced around, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to figure out where exactly they had run to. He had tried to lead them in somewhat in the right direction but there had been some slight panicking and they had gotten a little off track. "Eh…let's get back towards the road. I can figure it out better from there."

So that was what they did. They followed him back out to the road, keeping silent for the most part. The finding of the road let Steve get a look at some of the signs and he discovered they were still way WAY too far away from Dwayne's place to continue going on foot like this. In a vehicle they could make it there just as the sun was going down. Maybe a little before if they went fast enough. On foot though, they wouldn't even make it halfway. They would be stuck in the middle of nowhere, completely exposed to anything that would want to kill them. They had to get a new car or find a place to stay that would be safe.

"Hey guys?" An hour later Chris spoke up, breaking the silence they had all been walking in. "Am I just seeing things out of desperation or is that a car over there?" He pointed out towards the field on their left and their gazes followed his finger. Much to their surprise, there was indeed a car sitting there in the field. Judging from the tire tracks in the dirt leading out to it, the car had been run off the road, most likely by a demon of some sort.

"Come on." Steve led the way, opening each and every car door when they got to the vehicle to make sure nothing was hiding inside of it. He even checked the trunk to make sure there would be absolutely no surprises. "Get in," he ordered once he was satisfied with his safety inspection.

"There's no keys," Adam pointed out.

"Don't need them. Just get in." Steve got in the driver's seat and hot wired the car to life, slamming the door shut once he did so. "You fuckers buckled up?"

"We're good," Amy confirmed.

"Good." Steve pressed his foot on the gas as hard as he could, leaving a whole cloud of dust behind them as they sped off.

…

They managed to get to Dwayne's before nightfall but what they found there wasn't exactly comforting. Hell, it was anything but it. There was a huge crater in the middle of the street with at least two dozen bodies piled inside of it and his house was completely dark with no car in the driveway and a bunch of demon corpses littered on the lawn. "I don't think this is a good idea," Adam said nervously as they approached the front door.

"No shit," Jay agreed. Steve was leading the way yet again and Amy was behind him, followed by Jeff, Jay, Adam and Chris, who seriously looked like he was ready to try to make them go back to the car so they could just leave. "I think we're way too late. This dude is long dead."

"You think?" Jeff said as he peered into one of the windows.

"You see anything kid?" Steve asked.

"It's dark so not really…" Jeff cupped his hands around his eyes and tried to peer in even closer. "I think see someone moving in there."

"Please tell me it's a half black half Samoan dude," Steve said, elbowing Jeff out of the way so he could peer in as well. "Please tell me it's that dumb fuck and not-HOLY HELL!" He and Jeff both jumped back about a foot as an older blonde man pressed his face back against the window at them. Amy let out a short scream and Chris and Adam both immediately jumped behind Jay.

"Who the hell is THAT?" Chris asked.

"Shawn…" With a hand over his rapidly beating heart Steve stepped back towards the window, where the blonde man was still staring at them. "What the-"

"Austin!" The front door opened and another blonde man stepped outside. He was bigger than the other one, his hair not thinning as much so that suggested that he was the younger of the two.

"Hunter?" Steve's eyes narrowed at the man suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"

"Same thing I suspect you to be doing: trying to find Dwayne."

"Was he-"

"He's gone. I have no idea what happened. Shawn and I got here the place was empty. Shit was knocked around all to hell but there wasn't a body anywhere. Not his anyway. My guess is he split as soon as shit started going down." Hunter glanced up and down the street before shaking his head. "You guys just can't stand here. Get inside."

Steve looked like he would have rather peel the skin off his own eyeballs than do it but he led the others inside anyway. "Who is this guy?" Amy whispered as Hunter closed and locked the door behind them.

"Hunter Hearst Helmsley," Steve whispered back. "Was married into the McMahon family until their business rivals had them killed with a pack of hellhounds. Once his family went he got into the demon hunting business with his friend Shawn." He glared at Hunter, who was clearly listening in on this explanation (as were all the others). "Problem is, Shawn's a touch know, so he gets all kinds of shit floating through his mind any time he touches shit other people have touched. Mr. Big Nose over there spends more time babysitting him through that shit than he does actually fighting any demons. He looooooves his little boyfriend."

"Oh shut the fuck up baldy," Hunter snapped. "We're not gay and my nose is NOT that big."

Chris leaned in really close to Hunter's face, a smirk dancing across his lips. "Actually-"

"Finish that sentence and you will be wearing your ass for a hat," Hunter growled. "Understand?"

Chris let out a miffed snort. "Whatever." He followed the others into the living room and plopped down on the smaller of the two couches. "So where the hell do we go from here?" Valid question, but not one Steve had an answer to. Finding Hunter and Shawn instead of Dwayne had thrown him off. Dwayne, through all his faults, would have eventually worked with them. The same couldn't be said about Hunter and Shawn. The two of them were not known for playing well with others in any way. Hunter was just an ass and Shawn rarely could keep him in check (if he bothered to try at all). They would almost be better off sticking to themselves at this point.

"I've got an idea," Hunter announced. He sat down next to Shawn, who had still yet to say a word. He just kept looking out the window, scooting away from Hunter so they wouldn't touch. "We stay the fuck out of this and try not to get killed."

Steve gave him an incredulous look. "You're kidding right?"

Hunter shook his head. "I'm not. It's the smartest idea. We can't fight this. There's not enough of us left."

"We just can't give up," Amy protested. "We have to-"

"Have to what? Fight? With who?" Hunter held up his fingers to start ticking off names. "Dwayne's missing, London and Kendrick are gone, Batista's AWOL, the Guerrero's were slaughtered, Styles and Daniels are dead, Kelly and Eve are history and Tamina is the only Snuka left but we don't know where she is." He stopped and ran a hand through his hair. "Look, I don't like to say this anymore than you want to hear it, but we're finished. We can't fight this war, let alone win it."

"So we just let the Ministry win?" Jeff asked as he glared daggers at Hunter. "We just all die for nothing?"

"I didn't say THAT exactly," Hunter said in his defense. "According to Shawn, we do have a hope. Problem is, our hope don't give a shit if we live through this or not-hence my staying out of the way plan."

"What the hell is this supposed hope then?" Jay asked.

"Death." Shawn finally decided to speak.

"Death?" Chris looked at Shawn like he had just grown a second head. "Like THE Death?"

Shawn nodded.

"No no no wait," Steve said. "The Horsemen are working for Taker-"

"Not Death," Hunter said, cutting Steve right off. "Not according to what Shawn's seen. We saw a bunch of Reapers marching around-"

"We did too." Steve went on to describe what happened with Kane at the gas station, which made Shawn and Hunter exchange glances. To them that pretty much confirmed whatever they knew but Adam still had a question.

"I thought Death WAS the Grim Reaper. Why would there be other reapers running around?"

"Reapers are servants of Death," Steve explained. "Death's the big man of charge. He's got thousands of the things at his disposal."

"He's supposed to be the most neutral of the Horsemen," Hunter added. "He serves both God and Satan. Though the last time God really decided to fully unleash him was when Noah was building that ark of his."

Adam's eyes widened a bit at that history lesson but now Jeff had a question. "So why the fuck is HE our hope now?"

Hunter looked to Shawn for that one. "You're the one that saw it dude. You tell it."

Shawn let out a long sigh and gave his audience a long look before speaking. "It started with a girl…"

_Mindy Stratus walked into the diner with her twin sister Trish. It was extremely late; Mindy had just gotten done with one of her concerts and was starving. Trish had argued tooth and nail against a place like this considering the kind of food they served at this place but this was the only place for miles that was still open. Trish was a lot more low key in her appearance, with her black yoga pants and tank top with her hair pulled back into a high ponytail and sunglasses on her face. Mindy was still dressed in her stage costume, which was a blood red strapless ball gown with glitter all over her chest and shoulders. "Why can't we just go home Meem?" Trish asked yet again._

"_Because I always do this," Mindy replied as they sat down. "I like eating here."_

"_This crap is BAD for you Meem!"_

"_It tastes GOOD!"_

"_It'll make us FAT!"_

"_We're Polish Trisha Anne. We have big butts already. Can't win there." _

_Trish could only roll her eyes and get the least fattening thing on the menu when the waitress came over to take their orders. She would make Mindy slave extra hard in the gym tomorrow to work this off. Mindy was just not a naturally skinny girl. At four foot ten she always had a "chubby" figure, though Trish did her best to combat that. She did that for Mindy's own good, though Mindy would claim it was torture. The media loved to rip Mindy apart just as much as they loved her in general and her weight was always one of their favorite targets._

_They chatted while they ate and were almost done with their meal when the diner door opened. Trish had her back to the door so she didn't see the person nor did she even bother to turn around. Mindy however, saw the large hooded figure come in and she froze. The figure stood there, its head bowed so she couldn't even begin to make out its face. It went completely unnoticed by the waitress that walked directly past it and it walked over to the old man that was sitting in the corner of the diner, obliviously drinking some coffee and skimming through a newspaper._

"_Meem!" Trish leaned forward and waved her hand in front of her twin's face. She didn't realize it but she was staring back at the hooded figure with the widest of eyes and her mouth just hanging open. Nobody else could see it though. She was the only one. "Meem what the hell are you doing?"_

_Mindy gave no response. She just sat there and watched as the figure put its hand on the old man's shoulder. The instant it did the old man had a heart attack and he fell to the floor with a loud thump. "Oh my god!" Trish and the waitress ran to his side, once again completely missing the hooded figure. Mindy didn't though. She pushed her plate aside and hopped back up on the table, her breathing quick and shallow as the figure took a step towards her. "No no no no no no…" She shook her head as the figure came even closer. "No no no no no no-"_

"_Meem be quiet!" Trish shouted as the waitress called 911. She was the brains of the two of them; she was studying to become a doctor at York University. "I HAVE to help this man just HOLD on and QUIT buggin'!"_

_Mindy didn't even acknowledge a word that Trish said. She just kept scrambling backwards, falling off the table and nearly breaking her own arm trying to catch herself as she did it. Whimpering in pain, she kept scrambling away, eventually trapping herself in the corner. The figure kept coming though it was coming slowly, almost as if it was more curious about her than actually meaning to do any hard. However, she failed to see things that way. "No no no no go away go away go away go away GO AWAY GO AWAY GO AWAY!"_

"_MIRANDA!" Trish shouted. She was going to strangle the fuck out of her._

"_Ssssshhhhh…" The hooded figure lowered its hood, revealing a man underneath. At least, it mostly looked like a man-except for the eyes. His eyes were completely black. Not a trace of color could be found in them. The rest of him though was very handsome. Dark brown hair that was somewhat short though his bangs were hanging a bit in his eyes. Smooth, tan skin, a bit of a sloped nose, a nonexistent top lip and a full, pouty bottom one. Mindy stopped screaming though she shrank back still, pressing herself as much as she could against the wall. "I'm not going to hurt you," he said, tilting his head and studying her like he had never seen a woman in his life. At least, that was what he appeared to be doing. It was hard to tell when his eyes betrayed absolutely nothing._

"_Wh-wh-wh-what do you want?" Mindy squeaked out. "What do you want don't kill me don't kill me don't make me dead no dead-"_

"_Miranda Marie!" As the sirens of the ambulance drew closer, Trish stepped around the hooded figure and yanked Mindy up to her feet, dragging her out of the diner, cursing her for making the scene._

…

_Two nights later, Mindy was laying alone in her bed, tossing and turning as she attempted to get to sleep. Trish was in her room with her boyfriend Ron, who had come in from Canada to visit. Mindy had made herself scarce, knowing she wasn't exactly popular with her sister's high school sweetheart. In his eyes she kept Trish away from him and the life he wanted to have with her. Not like she meant to do it. She was a paranoid schizophrenic she HAD to have someone caring for her. She wasn't allowed to live on her own and Trish was all she had. Ron had known that from the start. He knew the score. Yet he still took it out on her when Trish wasn't around, though she refused to tell her sister anything about it. She knew what Ron meant to her she wouldn't speak up to ruin things for Trish. She loved her sister, even if she was a bitch._

_Unable to get comfortable, she sat up and turned on the lamp that was by her bed. It was then she noticed the man standing there. "Waaaah!" It was the hooded man from the diner. She quickly reached under her pillow and pulled out a rock she kept in case the biting fairy showed up (that was one of her more well known delusions) and threw it at him._

"_Whoa!" He easily caught the rock before it hit his face and shook his head. "Calm DOWN I-"_

"_TRISHA!"_

"_She and that lughead with her went outside. They can't hear you."_

_Mindy eyed the door, which he naturally was in front of. "What do you want?"_

"_I wanted to um…apologize for um…scaring you. The other night I didn't mean to-"_

"_So you show up in my room like a STALKER?" Her high pitched Canadian accent went up even higher and he winced. _

"_Sorry…"_

"_You want to kill me don't you?"_

"_What? No."_

"_You maded that old man dead. You touched him and he died."_

"_Yeah."_

"_Why? What did he do to you?"_

"_Nothing. I have to do it."_

"_Why? What are you? A meanie killer face?"_

"_Death."_

…

_Death followed Mindy, though she didn't always know it. For whatever reason, he was entranced by her the moment he laid his eyes on her. He saw something in her, something he wanted. He didn't understand it but he wanted more. He sought her out, gradually breaking her down and getting her not to be afraid of him. They talked for hours because that was all they could do. He couldn't touch her. He'd kill her. He wanted to touch her though. The more time he spent with her, the more he wanted her. He fell in love-very deeply in love. There was a problem though, beyond the obvious of him being Death and unable to truly act on his feelings. The other Horsemen began to sense the changes in him. He was feeling human feelings. They could smell it on him and they hated it. They didn't exactly get along in the first place so this just added fuel to the fire._

"_Ohh Deeeeath," Michelle drawled out in the annoying southern accent she insisted on using. "Where have you been buddy? We've missed you."_

"_I'm sure," he replied dryly. _

"_Oh don't be like that. We actually needed you earlier. We had a visitor."_

"_Undertaker." He had already known that was coming, which was partly why he bailed. He wanted no part of the sorcerer and his plans. The others were already in his pocket or were going to be soon enough, but he knew Mark really wanted him. They had met before, quite frequently actually. Mark had always been fascinated with him. He sought him out though Death didn't really care for him. He cared even less now though that he had Mindy in his life. Serving some power hungry jackass wasn't on his list of things to do._

"_He really is quite alluring," she went on, not paying attention to his indifference. "For someone like him anyway." She caught on to Death's lack of attention and shook her head. "You'd be better off with us you know. Whatever shit you've got going on, you better know you're either with us or against us. Just throwing that out there." No she wasn't. It had traces of a threat clearly laced in there. As far as Death knew, the others weren't aware of Mindy's existence. He had taken great precautions in hiding her from them. After talking to Michelle though, Death went to Satan to see about becoming human. It was the only way that he could actually be with Mindy. Satan of course, was completely baffled by the request._

"_You have to be joking." Satan was on his throne, looking at Death in disgust. "Human? You want to be HUMAN? Do you realize how INSANE this request is? Humanity is NOT a gift. You're one of the most powerful beings in existence-some say third next to God and myself. And you want to give that up for some girl?"_

"_Yes." No hesitation in that answer. Death was completely lovesick over Mindy. She had completely taken over him and even the devil himself saw that it was hopeless to fight against it. The eyes that were once pure black now had traces of color shining through them. He was infected with humanity. It was the main reason Satan just did the transformation. There was no point in him being what he was if this was how it was going to be. A new Death would be appointed and the other Horsemen were kept in the dark about the whole thing. Death knew they wanted him to join up with them and Mark though he wasn't sure on all of the details. He had avoided the situation because it was the last thing he wanted mixed up in and he wanted it even less now. There was only one thing he wanted and the moment he was turned he sought her out once more, not giving a second thought to what he was leaving behind. Not like he was going to miss it._

…

_Mindy was in the midst of a photo shoot when he found her. It was for some magazine cover and her manager, Trish and her bandmates were standing around behind the photographer, watching the pint sized rockstar command attention in a billowy white dress and smokey eyeshadow. He watched her for awhile, his heart beating faster and faster inside of his chest. The feeling of a heart and actually having to breathe was so new that he got insanely light headed and about passed out from lack of oxygen. He managed to regain his bearings though and cleared his throat as he came closer. All eyes turned to him and Mindy's about popped out in shock. For the first time she wasn't the only one that could see him. He suspected her mental illness played a role as to why that had been but now they could all see him. He smiled at her before pushing the photographer aside and snaked an arm around her waist, pulling her in for the biggest kiss he could possibly give her._

…

_With his new humanity came a new identity: James Lawson. James was Mindy's favorite name for a guy and Lawson was the last name of the last person's soul he reaped; it fit on him like a glove. He moved in with her into her Malibu mansion and an engagment ring soo found its way on to her finger. The media ate it up, calling it a "whirlwind romance". For the two of them though, it felt more like a long time coming._

"_James?"_

"_Hmm?" They were laying together in bed one night, her nestled up on his chest so she could listen to his heart beat. Now that they could touch each other, they couldn't seem to stop. She was already pregnant with their first child and they were bumping up their wedding day so she wouldn't be as big as a house inside her dress._

"_Do you like this?" She looked up at him as she asked him, her bright blue eyes almost glowing in the dark._

"_Like what Baby Doll?"_

"_Being human."_

"_Of course," he assured her. "I did this FOR you Baby Doll I love it."_

"_You will die though," she pointed out, petting his face worriedly. "You can break and die now you don't-"_

"_Sssshhh." He kissed her smoothly and shook his head. "I knew what I was signing up for. It was the only way I could be with you and I'd do the same thing every time if I had to do it again. This was the best thing I've ever done. I could never regret it." And he didn't. They were married in lavish ceremony on the beach with Trish as Mindy's maid of honor. James had no friends or anything outside of Mindy so her celebrity friends made up his wedding party. They had a honeymoon in Aruba and when they came home they happily settled down for what they thought would be their happily ever after. It was supposed to be that way. If anyone seemed fated for that, it was them. Unfortunately though, James's past wasn't ready to let him go completely just yet._

…

_Nearly five months into Mindy's pregnancy James found himself coming back from the store one day with a giant bouquet of roses in the passenger's seat. Mindy was at a radio interview and he had been hoping to not only beat her home with the flowers but also have dinner done for her so she wouldn't have to cook. His plan however, hit a snag when he ran into a traffic accident that blocked the roads up all to hell. He had to take a huge detour and now he was going to be lucky if he made it home in time for dinner. _

"_Fucking Christ…" Half hour later he was finally home. He grabbed the flowers and bolted inside. There were other things in the trunk but they didn't need to be taken out right now. He could get them later. "Baby Doll?" he called out as he entered the house. The lights were all on she definitely beat him home. "Baby Doll I'm home." He expected her to come running to cover him in kisses like she always did but that didn't happen. Frowning, he ventured further into the house and looked around. "Baby Doll?"_

_No answer again. Something felt wrong. He couldn't identify what it was but he had this feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was horribly wrong. "Baby Doll where are you?" He went into the kitchen to see if she was there. "Sweetheart answer m-" His voice suddenly died in his throat when he saw not Mindy but Michelle sitting at his table. She gave him what was supposed to be a sweet smile and waved to him daintily. "Hi honey. You miss us?"_

_He had absolutely no time to respond. Wade and Phil jumped him before he had the chance. Wade nailed him in the stomach with a pipe and Phil followed that up with a sharp knee to his face that shattered his nose._

"_Well well well…look what the cat dragged in," Mark said lazily as he, Kane and Bearer stepped into the room. Kane had Mindy by the throat but she was doing her best to get away from him._

"_Stop it!" she screamed as Wade and Phil continued to kick James while he was down. "Stop it stop it leave him ALONE!" She elbowed Kane In the stomach as hard as she could, trying to twist herself away from him even as he grabbed her hair to keep her in place. "Not my Jamie leave him ALONE!"_

"_And why would we do that?" Mark asked with a sneer._

_James's ribs hurt horrendously and his nose was just gushing blood but he couldn't think about that. There was no time to think about anything except for how to get Mindy out of there in one piece. He didn't care what happened to him but he had to save her. He waited for Phil to try to kick him again before pulling him down hard by yanking his leg out from under him. He then elbowed Wade in the groin and scrambled back up to his feet. He reached out to yank Mindy away from Kane but he didn't get a chance to touch her. Mark stepped in between them and James went flying back without even being physically touched. The pain of a thousand hot knives stabbing him seared through him and he screamed as he hit the floor hard. He was trying to fight through the pain, trying to get up so he could fight but his body wouldn't do it. He could only writhe in pain._

"_STOP!" Mindy ripped herself away from Kane, actually ripping out some of her own hair to get at Mark. She belted him across the face, breaking his concentration on the spell so James could get a reprieve. Michelle got into the fray, yanking Mindy back by the hair and made the mistake of putting her other hand by the young woman's mouth. Mindy bit down hard, making Michelle yelp and getting free yet again, only to receive a swift upper cut from Wade that literally lifted her up off her feet and sent her crashing back first to the floor. _

"_LEAVE HER ALONE!" James charged in full speed, tackling Wade down to the floor and trying to just snap his neck with his bare hands. He had no weapons that was all he could do. While he had his burst of energy though, he had no chance of hell in winning. They were all on him in an instant and they were stronger. He was only human; there was only so much strength that he had. He was no match for three Horsemen AND Mark AND Kane. Bearer did nothing but watch until handing Mark a knife, which was jammed into James's side. It wasn't a fatal wound but it sapped him of what strength he had left. He was a bleeding mess and could only struggle in vain as he was held down and Mark circled the crying Mindy, who was being held by the hair by Wade._

"_This is what you gave us all up for? This little bitch?" He sneered and bent down, placing a hand over Mindy's pregnant stomach. "This little bastard in here?"_

"_Don't you fucking DARE don't you fucking-" James doubled his efforts to get away when the knife went into the lower part of his spine, making him unable to move. Mindy spat at Mark and kicked her feet wildly. It was all in vain though. He kicked her in the stomach as hard as he could-over and over again. She let out a blood curdling shriek and tried to pull herself up in a fetal position but it was too late. The blood gushed from between her legs and James was shaking because he could do nothing. The knife was still in his back and he was bleeding everywhere. He was dying. Physically he was dying but on the inside he was even closer to it. Mindy's screams had died and now she was just sobbing, clutching at her stomach as she continued to bleed from in between her legs. Mark swiped up some of the blood on her thigh and went over to James, kneeling down in front of him and smearing it on his lips._

"_This is what your humanity got you," Mark said in a low voice. "How's it taste?"_

_James only snarled and managed to head butt him in the face, which got him and Mindy hung by their necks on the tree in their backyard. _


	18. Fight

"Jeff?" It was several hours later and everyone had gone to bed-everyone but one anyway. Jeff had been sitting out in the living room, just staring at nothing and not moving. Adam was the one that found him like that and he frowned, just watching him for awhile before speaking up out of concern. "Jeff?" When he didn't get an answer he slowly approached the younger man. The expression on his face was just completely blank. It was actually kind of disturbing to see. "Jeff?" He stopped in front of the couch Jeff was sitting at and hesitated for a moment before reaching out and putting his hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

Jeff jerked violently at the contact, staring up at Adam with wide eyes. "What?" he said, looking all around and searching for a sign of some kind of threat. When he didn't see one he relaxed just a little bit. "What is it? What happened?"

"Nothing," Adam replied with a shake of his head. "I just saw you sitting out here and I was trying to get your attention."

"Oh." Jeff rubbed the back of his neck and yawned, just realizing how tired he was. "What time is it?"

"About two in the morning." Adam sat down next to him in the couch and ran a hand through his blonde hair. "What's going on man? Can't sleep?"

Jeff shook his head. "My brain won't shut off. I just keep…thinking."

"Thinking huh? About what?"

Jeff shrugged. "Just…everything." He tried to chuckle but it came out extremely weak. "All this shit going on…it's mind blowing isn't it? I mean, just a couple of days ago, everyone's lives were completely normal-or as normal as they could get anyway." The lives of demon hunters weren't really normal at all, they both knew that. "Now everything has just gone to shit. Life as everyone knew it as gone. Everyone's either been wiped out or they're fighting to survive. And apparently we "can't" fight this and the only person that can is more interested in getting revenge than saving the fucking world."

"Well…to be fair, he doesn't HAVE to be interested in saving our asses," Adam said, playing a little devil's advocate. "In my book, Death can get all the revenge he wants as long as it takes these fuckers out and leads to us all living."

Jeff didn't say anything to that right away. He knew Adam had a good point. At this point, as long as someone got the job done, it didn't really matter what their reasons were. But at the same time, it wasn't really comforting to him. "I just can't sit back and do nothing," he confessed, speaking very slowly because he was hesitant about actually saying it. He wasn't used to really confessing anything to anyone besides Amy or Mickie. "I can't. I can't do it. As much as I hated him, I think Matt taught me one good thing."

"Oh?" Adam was curious to hear this one. "And what was that?"

"Don't stop fighting," Jeff replied. "No matter what don't ever stop fighting." His lips twitched and his eyes got a glassy, faraway look to them. "I know that he only said that because he was a stubborn ass who didn't know how to quit. But it's got some merit, you know? I mean, this is our lives at stake here. Everyone is either dead, dying or running scared. The whole fucking world has gone to hell because some asshole is having a power trip and we're supposed to just sit back and hope someone else who don't care or even know about us fight our battle?" He snorted. "Please. I'm not good with people stuff…never have been….but this is our world. We should fight." He gave Adam a hopeful look. "Right?"

Adam thought it over, slowly nodding his head as he did so. Jeff did have a good point. Hunter was so adamant that they should just stay out of it and the others were agreeing with him out of exhaustion but was that really the right thing to do? Adam didn't think so. Not now. Before all this, he had never really gotten into the whole fight against evil thing. He could have; he could have easily started up with Jay and Chris did but he didn't. Truth was he was always too scared to do it. He couldn't fathom going out night after night, dedicating his life to fighting things that could tear his throat out or rip his body apart with its bare hands (or tentacles…or anything else they had). Now though, it was different. For all he knew, he, Jeff and everyone else in the house were the only people that were left to fight. If there were any other hunters left there wasn't time to find them. It was them…and he knew that they couldn't just do nothing.

"Adam?" Jeff waved his hand in front of Adam's face. "Adam?"

"You're right," Adam said.

Jeff blinked in surprise. "I am?"

"Yeah. We need to fight….I'm going to fight." Adam grinned slightly and despite the situation, Jeff found himself almost smiling back.

…

"_Jamie?"_

"_Hmmm?" James kissed Mindy's icy cold throat and hugged her more tightly. They were laying on the hood of his car, staring up at the stars. It was the middle of the night and they had just been driving around, with no particular destination in mind. They were pulled over in an empty drive-in movie theater and they had been making love in his car before going up on the roof. _

"_When we die do you think we'll be up in those stars?"_

_James frowned a bit, his throat constricting at the morbid question. "Of course," he answered, kissing her temple gently. "We'll be anything you want to be-and we'll be it together." He traced his finger down the slope of her nose. "Nothing will ever drag me away."_

Death pushed the memory away as he slipped through the quiet streets. He was on the hunt. Time wasn't on his side. He had two Horsemen, Mark and Bearer to go…he wasn't worried about whatever was left of the Ministry after that. There would only be minor demons and they would all disband once the leader was gone. Mindless sheep was all they were. The power players were what was important. The ones that did this. Killed his Baby Doll, took her from him. They would all pay. Vengeance would be his and vengeance would give him back his Baby Doll. His beautiful Miranda. He would get her back though. Satan had given him his word that if the Horsemen and the Ministry were stopped, he would be reunited with her. As of now, her soul was trapped in Mark's urn…along with the souls of every other person he had killed. It was what helped to feed his power. Bearer, since he was the keeper of that urn, would be the hardest to get to. Mark usually guarded him like nothing else in the world. But of course, since killing Mark at full power was like impossible, he HAD to get to him somehow.

Death turned into the nearest alley and waited, knowing he had been followed. Phil had been on his trail for awhile but he hadn't let that bother him. He just kept going, pretending to not notice to help lure him in to some kind of false sense of security. Famine had never been the brightest of the bunch. Yes he could manipulate those dumber and weaker than him but he wasn't anywhere near what he made himself out to be. Once you knew that he was full of shit you knew any perceived power came from his inflated ego.

Death waited until Phil was almost ready to pass him and then struck, swinging his scythe and trying to catch him in the gut with it. Phil was faster than he thought he would be though and managed to catch the handle before the blade could go through him.

"Nice shot," Phil said, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

Death scowled from under his hood and stepped out of the alley, swinging his body and the scythe around as hard as he could. Phil lost his grip and went flying, hitting the ground arm first. He rolled back up to his feet and ducked as Death swung the scythe at his head. "Oh what, you don't want to talk?" He tried to land a kick to Death's hands but was blocked. "Did you get your personality sucked out of you when you were brought back?"

"More like when you all killed me." Death grabbed Phil by the ankle when he tried another kick and jerked him hard enough to make him land flat on his back. Phil grunted in pain but still kicked his other foot out, catching Death right in the mouth. Death stumbled back, his hood falling back as Phil scrambled up to his feet and went into the warehouse closest to them. Death rolled his eyes and went after him, slamming the door shut behind him once he was in. "What's wrong Famine?" he asked, not bothered by the complete darkness that they were closed into total darkness. He could see just fine in it. "Huh? Don't you want to come at me?" He peered around, not seeing a sign of Phil anywhere. "You sure didn't have a problem with it before. When I was WEAKER than you!" He heard a slight sound come from above him and he glanced up, his eyes catching sight of the staircase not too far away. "What? You don't like fighting someone that's stronger?"

No answer. Death knew there wouldn't be. He slipped up to the second floor, glancing around and seeing no sign of Phil. He was there though. He was sure of that. It was just a matter of-

BAM! Phil swung down from the rafters and connected with a kick to the side of the head. Death stumbled but didn't fall. Instead he swung the scythe again and this time Phil barely jumped back in time to avoid getting sliced in half. The end of the blade cut him across the chest and he hissed and scrambled back, his eyes narrowed at Death angrily. "Really? You're REALLY doing this? For what?"

"For WHAT? Are you fucking KIDDING me?" Death advanced at him angrily. "You're ASKING me that?" He punched him in the face and kicked him in the stomach to send him down to the ground. "After what you fucking did you ask me that?" He kicked Phil as he tried to get up. "How about YOU tell me why? HUH? WHAT THE FUCK DID BABY DOLL AND I DO TO YOU?"

Phil coughed and rolled to his feet once more, backing up and trying to search for an opening. "You LEFT…that's it really." He laughed when he really shouldn't have. "We were annoyed. You were supposed to be the baddest of us all and you let yourself go to some fucking whore-"

That last sentence was a mistake. The scythe was swung one last time, this time catching Phil right in the throat. Blood sprayed everywhere as he was hooked up like a fish. He tried to jerk himself free but Death kicked his legs out from under him and dragged him over to the window, where the Reapers were waiting for him. Several of them were holding a makeshift Undertaker symbol and once Death unhooked Phil's dying body he kicked him down to them, watching as they grabbed him and tied him to the symbol. They looked up at him for confirmation and when he nodded they carried the symbol up on to the roof and lit it on fire so whoever was left in the city could see it burn.


	19. The Best Laid Plans

"So this is our army…" Hunter mused as he surveyed the room. Adam and Jeff had told everyone else that they planned to fight and in consequence, one by one, the others all found themselves jumping on board. Hunter had been the last one to do so and he wasn't even sure that he should be doing so. He had meant it when he said their situation was hopeless. What was even the point of trying? Sure maybe they would go down fighting and Shawn was now saying it all wouldn't be in vain…but Hunter wasn't really as sold on that one. The only reason he had even started to agree to this useless and insane plan was so that he wasn't left all alone. He was going to be dust a whole lot faster if he didn't have anyone watching his back.

"Looks like," Steve said with a nod. He was looking over what weapons they had and trying to think where they could possibly get their hands on more. They had enough hand to hand weapons but he thought they needed more long distance stuff. Crossbows, guns-anything along those lines. The more they could avoid hand to hand the better off they would be. "Aren't we just a lovely bunch?"

Hunter snorted. "Oh yeah."

Jay frowned and looked at the others. "I think we're lovely…well maybe not Adam. He sucks."

"Fuck you dickhead." Adam punched Jay's arm as hard as he could, which made the other man yelp and jump behind Chris for protection. "That's right you better run."

"Children…" Amy shook her head disapprovingly before looking at Steve. "If we are going to fight how exactly do we plan to FIND the Undertaker and his army?"

Steve exchanged looks with Hunter and Shawn. Now that was the question of the hour. With all the chaos none of them had actually seen the grand master of it for themselves. Steve wanted to suggest trying to do some kind of spell to see if that would work but the only witch they had with them was dead. Mickie had been blown half to hell and nobody else had any idea what they were doing in that department. There was no way he would just let them try it without any kind of experience. He knew damn well that anything magic related wasn't to be taken lightly. The smallest of mistakes could cause an entire clusterfuck of consequences and that was the last thing they needed at the moment.

"Well, given that things are somewhat quiet again, I think it's only a matter of time before shit starts going down again," Shawn finally said. "So I guess we just gotta go looking."

"Looking for trouble?" Hunter said, his voice oozing with sarcasm. "Oh there's an idea."

"You got anything better?" Jeff asked.

"Where would we even start looking?" Chris asked, deciding to butt in. "I mean, just going out looking wouldn't do us much good. Not if we're just running in circles."

"If we're going to be running around we should get more weapons," Steve said, catching everyone by surprise. "Our arsenal ain't really worth a shit if we're looking to wage an actual war. We gotta find a place to stock up."

Hunter's eyebrows rose up, surprised that a smart idea had actually come from one of the bunch-and from Steve especially. He had never credited him with an overabundance of brains at any point in knowing him. "There was a military base on the outskirts of town," he said. "Assuming it's still standing I think we could start there. Unless the government is hiding everyone deep underground I don't think anyone would mind if we take shit."

"What IF someone is still there?" Amy asked. "You think we could get them to help us?"

Hunter snorted. "Even if there was we probably would have to convince them that we weren't crazy-and hell, that's probably the BEST case scenario. One thing I've learned over the years is that military and our world don't mix."

"And how would YOU know that?" Adam asked.

"Long story," was all Hunter came back with as he left the room to grab the car keys. It really was a long story and it wasn't one that he felt like repeating, though he was sure he was going to be made to. Nobody would ever just take his word for it. Oh well. Telling the story would at least keep things from being too quiet on the way there.

…

"I TOLD him not to go running off on his own," Paul ranted as he trailed behind Mark. They had found Phil's body and while Mark was refusing to show the slightest bit of reaction, Paul was on a roll with his tirades. And really, he had every reason to bitch Mark out. He had warned him against targeting James in the first place and had he been listened to? No. And what was happening now? James was picking them all off one by one. Michelle, Kane, Viscera, Phil…this was NOT the way things were supposed to be going. Wade, Bradshaw and Raven were rallying the troops for a second wave of attack which hopefully would draw Death to them. Mark was going to be with them to hopefully settle this once and for all. First though, he apparently had another mission in mind-but what that was Paul hadn't the slightest idea.

"I'm aware," Mark said, making half an effort to soothe Paul. They were in what was left of Toronto and walking down what was once a residential street. What they were doing here Paul didn't know; Mark wasn't sharing with that plan. Whatever it was, he was sure they didn't have time for it.

"Now we're one to one damn Horseman and HE'S not much better than the idiot and the tart were." Paul adjusted the urn under his arm and tried to walk faster to keep up with Mark's long strides. "Our only saving grace is that he has half a brain and even THAT will probably fall pray to his ego." He jabbed Mark with one of his meaty fingers. "Reminds me of YOU."

Mark gave him a rather searing glare for that comment but didn't even bother to defend himself. It wasn't going to do any good anyway. So instead he just walked faster, turning the corner and coming to the only house on the block that was still standing. "WHY are we here?" Paul finally asked as he glanced up and down the street. There weren't even demons around looking to pick off the bones. As far as he could tell, they were the only ones alive for miles.

"I need a little pick me up," Mark replied, going up to the front door and opening it rather quietly.

"We had to come all the way to HERE for that?"

"This one is a bit more personal than usual…" Mark stepped into the house and looked around. The power was out and at first it looked long abandoned but he knew better. While Paul was bitching away, he had seen someone pull the curtains shut…and that some someone was trying her best not to breathe too loudly in the closet. With one swift move he ripped the door open and ripped the frightened injured blonde out of there by the hair. She let out an ear splitting shriek and tried to hit at him to no avail.

"Who the hell is THAT?" Paul asked, eyeing the blonde in disgust.

"Trish-James's sister in law."

"Oh for God's SAKES…" Paul pinched the bridge of his nose and watched as Trish tried to slap Mark and get away, only to get her wrist grabbed and wrenched so hard it almost broke.

"OW OW OW!" Trish tried to stomp on Mark's feet to make him let her go. "Let me GO let me go let me-"

"Shuddup!" Mark backhanded her hard across the face and grabbed her by the throat to keep her still. She still tried to struggle still and tears began to stream down her face as it dawned on her that there wasn't an actual chance that she could get away.

"Please let me go," she begged. "Please please please let me go please-"

"Let you go? Hmmm…" Mark pretended to ponder that for a moment. "I could…but I would want something in return."

Trish's face paled. "Wh-wh-what?"

"I would need YOU to pass on a little message to your brother in law."

She gave him a confused look. "James? He's DEAD. Some FREAKS killed him and Meem I don't know what-" His fist going through her chest and ripping out her heart interrupted her and Paul opened the urn so he could catch her soul as it left her body.

"Are you satisfied now?" Paul asked as he put the lid back on the urn. "Or-oh now what are you doing?" He shook his head as Mark threw Trish's body over his shoulder. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Don't you worry about it," Mark replied. "I've got a plan."

"That's exactly why I should BE worried at this rate…" Paul threw up his free hand in exasperation as Mark just went right out the door without saying a word. "God damn insolent idiot…" Paul followed him out the door, trying to figure out just what he was up to now. He wasn't quite sure what he was up to, but whatever it was, he sure as hell hoped that it would work better than everything else had so far. The last thing they needed was for yet another thing to go wrong.


	20. Falling Apart

"Soo...the government REALLY wanted to make super soliders out of demons?" Adam repeated incredulously. Steve was driving them to the military base and to pass the time, Hunter was telling the others exactly why the supernatural world and the military and government didn't mix. The military had saw it as a resource to fight their wars overseas. They wanted to drop the demons in the more dangerous areas so they could cut down on their casualties. They had sought out a way to make the demons more indestructible so that bullets wouldn't kill them but the demons, who didn't appreciate being captured and experimented on, got themselves loose and began slaughtering everyone at the bases they were being kept at. Hunter had been near one of the areas and he had done his best to help some of the soldiers get out alive. He found out the story behind the mess later, when he had taken one of the soliders out to get a drink. The others were pretty stunned at finding this whole story out, since they hadn't even heard of anything like this taking place.

"I wouldn't have just told you it did if it didn't," Hunter said, trying to mask his irritation. He wasn't the type of person who liked to repeat himself. It bugged him like nothing else.

"That is just...completely messed up," Amy said with a shake of her head. She saw Hunter giving her a "you think?" look and she just shook her head. What else was there to even say? It wasn't anything she had expected to hear yet at the same time she couldn't be surprised by it. After seeing as much shit as she had seen over the years, nothing really surprised her anymore. And that made her feel kind of sad but she sure as hell wasn't going to say anything about it. That was about the least important thing in the world at the moment.

Steve made a right turn and pulled up to the gates of the base before stopping the truck. The gates of the place had been knocked down completely. The chain link fence was litearlly ripped to shreds and the barbed wire from it was strewn about all over the place. No way he could drive into it without fucking up his tires completely. "Looks like we're going on foot."

Chris leaned up through the back so he could look out the windshield. "Dude, you really want to walk through barbed wire."

"Well I was personally planning on going AROUND it," Steve said snarkily. "But if YOU want to walk through it that's just fine with me." He opened his truck door and got out, snagging his battle axe as he went. "You guys comin?"

"Yeah yeah we're comin hold your horses." Jay opened his door and hopped out, holding up his crossbow and glancing around as the others got out as well. The entire place was eerie. Clearly it had been hit hard and at best they were going to go in there and find a bunch of dead bodies...at worst a bunch of demons waiting to rip their throat out.

Once they were out of the car Steve led the way in the search to try to get around the mess of barbed wire. Jay and Chris came next, whispering to each other and armed with crossbows. Adam and Amy were in the middle while Jeff was behind him and Shawn and Hunter brought up the rear. They had to go quite a bit of ways around to find a spot that wasn't covered in barbed wire and even when they found it, it was such a narrow space that they had to go single file just to get through it. "What if like the door is locked or something?" Adam asked.

Steve opened his mouth to answer that question but then stopped when they came to where the door use to be. "Looks like we don't have to worry about that." He stepped forward and about stepped through the dark doorway when a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Here, take this." Adam put a flashlight in his hand, which he immediately gave back.

"Are you crazy I'm not shinin' this fuckin' thing in here. If something's in there it'll come right to us!"

"And if there is something in there we'll be able to SEE it!" Hunter snapped, pushing the others out of the way so he could come up closer. "So unless you're about to pull night vision goggles for all of us out of your ass, take the damn flashlight."

Steve made a face and saw that Amy and Shawn both had one too. "Oh FINE then." He snatched the flashlight back and turned it on before leading the others inside. The flashlights were indeed a good idea, whether he would actually admit it or not. Without them, they literally would be unable to see their own hands in front of their faces. No way they could get anything done then.

"So uh...I just thought of something," Amy said, her voice on the hushed side in case they weren't alone. "Where exactly ARE the weapons?"

"The armory..." Hunter said, trying to be condescending but she was all over that.

"And where's THAT geinus?"

"Sssshhh!" Shawn said as he glanced around frantically. "We'll find it. Just keep going."

Amy and Hunter quieted down and kept going. Steve really didn't have any idea about where they were going but he was trying to shine his flashlight everywhere in an effort to memorize their surroundings so that once they did find the armory, they could get back out the way they came. He came to a staircase but veered off to the right first so they could try to avoid going down it. All they found down that hallway though was a bunch of offices. No weapons to be found whatsoever. "Fuck." They turned back and went down the opposite hallway. That one led them to what had once been a cafeteria. That room was completely trashed, and the floor was stained with dried blood from all the mutilated corpses. "Holy shit," Jay said as he whistled under his breath.

"Let's go," Steve said gruffly. He made sure Hunter had Shawn (who was REALLY cringing and trying to keep himself from touching anything) before leading everyone out of the room. There was no choice but to go down the stairs now. They went down them as quietly as they could, but every step they took made noise and Steve was cringing like crazy. An uncomfortable chill went up his spine and his stomach was twisting itself up into a knot. Something was off. He stopped towards the bottom of the staircase and shined his flashlight up ahead of him, squinting his eyes and peering as far ahead as he could. He couldn't see anything but that didn't make him feel better. He still felt like he was leading everyone into a death trap.

"What is it?" Jeff asked. He and the others had tried to stay quiet because they thought Steve heard something but now they were all starting to feel like sitting ducks.

"...Nothing." Steve wanted to turn back. In his gut, it felt like the best plan. He had always trusted his instincts and it had always served him best to do so. But where would they be if he did? If he told them to turn back now they would just argue and that would be a huge pain in the ass. And even if they followed him back out, what then? They would stil be stuck with what weapons they had and that wouldn't do them any good in the long run. So despite his misgivings, he took a deep breath and led them the rest of the way down the stairs. They went down the narrow hallway, going straight down it until they hit a doorway that was missing their door. In it they went and to his relief, they finally managed to find the armory. Thank Christ.

"Fucking score." Shawn had shined his flashlight around and managed to point it to a bunch of guns that were behind a cage near the wall. Hunter saw this first and immediately went over to it, finding the padlock broken so he could just swing the door open and start grabbing. "Guys! I've got 'em!"

Adam, Jeff, Amy and Chris went over to start grabbing as well while Jay, Steve and Shawn stood guard. Steve's flashlight alone couldn't illuminate the whole room and the bad feeling he had gotten back on the staircase was not only returning but doubling in strength. "Hurry up you guys," he urged. "I want to get this and go."

Even in the darkness Jay noticed how pale Steve's face had gotten. "What's up with you? This is going great. Nothing's gone wrong yet."

The moment he said that the power suddenly came back on, nearly blinding all of them. Steve put his arm up to shield his eyes and blinked several times to make the spots he was seeing go away. When he could see properly again, he saw not only a tall, lanky man with a somewhat crooked nose and greasy looking black hair standing in front of them, but he had about thirty demons standing behind him. "You were SAYING?" he hissed at Jay, who looked like he had just pissed himself.

"Well well well..." the man's British accent drawled out as he stepped forward. It didn't bother him in the least that the others stepped out of the cage with their newly found guns pointed. He actually looked amused by it. "What do we have _here_?"

Adam took a tentative step towards Shawn and leaned forward. "Who's THAT?" he whipsered.

"War," Shawn whispered back, not looking back to see the way Adam's face drain of color.

"I prefer Wade these days actually." Wade took a step forward and blatantly laughed as all the guns pointed at him. "You might as well put those down. They won't do you any good...not against ME anyway." He jerked his head back towards his small army of demons. "And I don't think you can shoot fast enough to take them ALL out before they rip you to shreds."

"Let's test that theory." Hunter fired his first gun first, hitting Wade right between the eyes, which did take him off his feet. Whether that was from surprise or actual damage they didn't know and didn't stop to check out. He and the others started firing at the demons, who were rushing them all at once.

"Get DOWN!" Steve ducked down and grabbed Shawn and Jay, pushing them the hell out of the way since they were the only gunless ones of the bunch. Jay managed to fire off his crossbow once as they went, hitting a demon square in the throat. Nearly half the demons were shot down before the other half were literally on top of them, forcing them to stop fire. Steve jumped back in the fray, pulling one of the demons off Adam and decapitating it with his axe. Another one jumped on his back and he bent down and reached upwards, yanking that demon off and ducking out of the way as Jay shot it with his crossbow.

"Let's GO!" Steve yelled, trying his best to pull everyone out and get them back out the door. They had to get the fuck out of there. Staying and fighting wasn't going to do them any good. Not when they had one of the horsemen to deal with. The demons they could take but him? Not so much. "GUYS! Let's-"

"Nobody's going ANYWHERE sunshine!" Wade was back up to his feet and the bullet wound he had sustained was already healed over. He violently shoved Steve and Jay all the way back against the wall and began to make his way towards Hunter. Shawn jumped on his back and started hitting him as hard as he could. "Shawn don't!" Steve yelled. He went to help but Amy was thrashed to the ground right in front of her and he tripped and fell right over. "FUCK!" He got back up to his feet just in time to see Shawn getting yanked off of Wade and his neck snapped with a horrible crack.

"SHAWN!" Hunter's eyes about bugged out of his head and he pointed his gun at Wade once again. This time though, he had no chance to pull the trigger. Wade grabbed the barrel of the gun and snatched it away, turning it around and blowing Hunter's face right off. Blood sprayed everywhere and Amy screamed, making Wade turn back around and point the gun at her. Steve immediately shielded her with his body, which just made Wade smirk.

"Oh now that is just pre-" The lights going back out stopped him in his tracks. "Oh now what is THIS?"

"Let's go," Steve whispered to Amy. He pushed her towards the direction of the door and tried to reach for Jay to get him going as well. He was hoping the others were being smart enough to try to make it out instead of fighting in the dark (unless they HAD to do that). He was really damning himself for not following his first instinct and getting them out while he could. That had been a HUGE HUGE mistake.

The lights came back on and everyone froze. Standing in front of Wade was a huge hooded figure…it was Death. That was the only person it could possibly be. Steve froze in his tracks. The demons that had been left were now laying dead at the Reapers' feet and Adam, Jeff and Chris were all surrounded by them. Steve blinked several times to make sure he was actually seeing all this right. Normally you had to be dead or near dead to see Death and his servants…either they wanted to be seen or they were a lot more fucked than even he originally thought.

Wade scowled and fired the gun just for the hell of it. The bullet struck Death right in the chest but obviously it did nothing to faze him. He just swung his scythe at Wade's head, making him duck and tackle him to the ground. The two of them rolled along the ground, swinging at each other wildly. The Reapers just watched, not paying attention to anyone around them. Steve motioned for Chris, Jeff and Adam to go to the door and after some hesitation they went for it. Steve grabbed Jay and Amy and they went as well, getting right out of the room without being noticed.

"Holy shit holy shit holy holy shit!" Chris said under his breath. He got to the stairs first and nearly tripped and fell on his face. "Hoooly shit holy shit holy shit…"

"Yeah yeah yeah we KNOW." Adam helped him up to his feet and then pushed him along. "Let's go. Let's go let's go let's go!"

"Shouldn't we stay?" Jeff asked. "I mean, we were going to take the fight to-"

"We're not taking the fight to ANYONE right now," Steve growled. "We're getting our asses to the car and that's FINAL!" There was nothing that could be done against War. Death hopefully had that one under control and give them all one less thing to worry about.

…

Death let out a low grunt as Wade got his feet under him and kicked him off towards the wall. He rolled to a stop before he actually hit the wall and was on his feet in a flash. Wade was as well and he grinned, blood dripping out of his mouth from where he got caught with a hard punch. "I was wondering when you were going to show up." He spat out a mouthful of blood and wiped his lips with the back of his hand. "I'm kind of sad you didn't come to me first." He cocked his head to the side as Death just stood there, scythe clutched tightly in hand. "What? You got nothing to say?" He shook his head. "I remembered a time when we couldn't shut you up. Did your personality die when that bitch did?"

Death snarled and lunged at him. He moved out of the way enough to not get impaled on the scythe but Death turned back enough to grab him and yank him down to the ground with him. The scythe went to his throat and he was going to go for the kill when the sound of footsteps caught his attention. He wasn't going to look though. He wouldn't look he didn't care who he was he had to do this he-

"Jamie!" the high pitched Candaidan voice caught his attention real quick. He looked and saw standing there just a few feet in front of him was none other than Mindy. His beautiful wife was standing right there in front of him. The wife that was still dead...but he was too lost in his madness to remember that fact once he laid eyes on her. Her icy blue eyes were lit up at the sight of him and her mess of raven hair was hanging loosely down her back. It needed straightened and brushed he had to take care of that. She had one of his black button up shirts as a dress and she was clutching one of the baby dolls he had been leaving aroun all over the place.

"Baby Doll..." Completely forgetting about Wade he pulled his hood back and crawled over to her. He got up on his knees and pulled her into a bone crushing hug, kissing every inch of her face that he could. "Baby Doll...oh Baby Doll..." He hugged her even more tightly and wouldn't stop kissing her. "Baby Doll I love you. I love you Baby Doll I love you." He cupped her face in his hands and pressed his forehead to hers so he could look into her eyes. "I love you so much Baby Doll I do. I love you so much I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't stop them baby I tried to stop them I TRIED to I did..."

"You're fucking pathetic, you know that?"

James froze and looked over Mindy's shoulder to see Mark standing there. "NO!" He shielded Mindy away and shook his head. "You stay AWAY you fucking stay AWAY she's MINE! You're not taking her again!"

Mark just laughed and leaned against the doorframe. "There's NOTHING to take again..."

James frowned and pet Mindy's hair, going to kiss her again when he noticed that her hair was suddenly shorter...and brown. "What..." He looked at her agian and saw that it wasn't Mindy at all. It was her twin sister Trish...a reanimated version of Trish. Letting out a scream he smashed Trish's face into the ground and lunged at Mark, only to get tackled from behind by Wade. The Reapers moved to help but Mark put up a force field, which kept them back. It wouldn't keep them back forever but it would work long enough for what they wanted to do.

"Get the bloody scythe!" Wade shouted. He had James pinned down and was driving his knee into his arm to make him let go of the scythe. James was snarling, literally snarling and spitting to get free. He couldn't even think he was so enraged. He had had her back. He had had Mindy back she had been right there in his arms...a trick. A dirty trick was all it was. His Baby Doll was still dead. She hadn't been back at all. They had tricked him.

Snarling once again he used his free arm to push himself up and knock Wade off of him so he could lunge at Mark, who was just about to take the scythe from him. They crashed through the wall, James's teeth sinking into his throat as they fell. He ripped away at the flesh, not caring what he was doing or whether it would actually kill Mark or not. He just wanted to hurt him. He wanted to rip him apart piece by piece...but like a true coward Mark disappeared right out from underneath him and Wade wasn't too far behind him. Panting wildly, James looked around the room and only saw the Reapers staring at him, waiting for some kind of instruction. He gripped his hair with both hands and ripped two large handfuls out as he screamed in frustration.


	21. Final Battle

"Well THAT went horribly..." Adam commented as Steve started to drive away. He was sitting in between Jay and Chris, glancing back through the back window to see if they were being followed. It didn't look like they were but that didn't really comfort him. There was nothing comforting about their current situation. They had their weapons now sure but they were down Hunter and Shawn and had nearly died themselves. Any hope they had had on the car ride there was crushed now. What they could even do now was beyond him. They would almost be better off shooting themselves in the head and just ending it quickly at this point.

"Where are we going now?" Amy asked Steve. She was up in the passenger's seat looking at him as he drove.

"I have no idea," he replied. His grip on the steering wheel was so hard that his knuckles were turning white. The sky, which had been somewhat cloudy to begin with, was rapidly turning black. "What _now_?" he asked in disbelief.

"Is it supposed to rain?" Jay asked.

Chris snorted. "Well given that everyone has been KILLED there hasn't exactly been a weather report." He smacked Jay upside the head. "Idiot."

Thunder boomed loudly overhead and the wind began to blow so hard that the car began to sway on the road. "Should we pull over?" Adam asked as he leaned forward to look out the windshield. It looked so horrible out that it did scare him a bit.

"Pull over?" Steve repeated incredulously. "Pull over where?" They were out in the middle of nowhere. There was no good, safe spot to pull over to. "We'll be sitting ducks out here."

"I don't think going this way is any better..." Amy cringed as a nasty bolt of lightening streaked across the sky. Rain was starting to fall now, fast and hard. Steve turned on the windshield wipers as high as they could go but it was barely helping. The rain was coming down much too hard.

"Dude you HAVE to pull over," Jay insisted. "You're gonna drive us into a ditch."

"I can't SEE where over is!" Steve snapped.

"Just stop the damn car ass clown!" Chris yelled. It wasn't like there would be any cars coming up to them and hitting them as they sat there.

Steve fianlly just put on the brakes and put the gear up in park. "Fuck fuck FUCK!" He slammed his hand against the steering wheel each time he yelled. The others cringed as he yelled, not daring to say a word. The rain beat down harder on the car, making it completely impossible to see out the windows now. Not that Adam didn't try. He put his face against his window, trying to see if they were about to suddenly get hit by a tornado...he hadn't thought of that when he made his pull over request.

"Holy Christ..." He pressed his face against the window even more, another nasty streak of lightening lighting up the sky enough to see a Reaper's face staring back at him. "HOLY SHIT!"

"Wh-" Jay never got to finish that question. The car suddenly flipped over on it's own, rolling a couple dozen feet in the direction of the wind before finally coming to a rest upside down.

...

"Are you happy now?" Paul yelled angrily. Wade and Mark had rejoined him and the rest of their army and he knew by the looks on their faces and the incoming storm that they had once again, made shit worse. He had stayed behind on Mark's orders and now severely regreted that decision. "Are you? Are you HAPPY now?"

"Shut up," Mark snapped. He was even having trouble seeing with all the rain but he was doing better than Paul was. The weather didn't seem to bother him as far as seeing went but he didn't look too pleased with their situation.

"I am NOT shutting up!" Paul snapped. "Was this what you wanted? Huh? You've pissed him off AGAIN!" He adjusted the urn under his arm, trying to keep it from slipping out of his grasp. "We do not have TIME for-"

"Ah shut up Paulie," Wade said gruffly, slapping Bearer on the back. They weren't that far away from where they had left James and they weren't going to get much further. The Reapers were already coming and it wouldn't be long before James would get there too. A fight like this wasn't what Mark had really been looking for but for Wade? It was perfect in his eyes. He knew from the moment they had found out that James had reclaimed the throne of Death that it would come down to this. It was the only way. "Send your bloody army towards the Reapers and leave Death to me and Marky here." He got an absolutely seething glare for calling Mark that but he didn't care. The wind had picked up so much that a couple of their smaller demons lost their balance and fell backwards but he just stretched his arms out, laughing as he saw the hooded figure coming towards them. "We're ending this now."

...

"Are you guys okay?" Jeff had to cough up a mouthful of blood and spit it out before he could get that question out. He had managed to get his seatbelt undone and fell down on to the ceiling of the car. Broken glass was everywhere and he was convinced that he smelled gasoline. He had no idea how this had happened and he wasn't sure that he wanted to know anything more at this point. He just knew what had to be done and what had to be done was them getting the fuck out of there.

"I'm fine..." Amy was the first one to reply. She had freed herself from her seat and was trying to push her door open. She grimaced in pain, her hand going up to her shoulder to clutch it. "I think..."

Jeff nodded slightly and looked at Adam, Chris and Jay. Chris and Jay were both out, seemingly having knocked heads while the car was flipping. Adam was conscious but he couldn't get his seatbelt off like Jeff did. "Here..." Jeff got his door open and turned himself around. "Let me try." He tried to unbuckle Adam's belt but it refused to come undone for it either. It was firmly stuck. "Mother fucker..." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife, cutting Adam free as Steve and Amy got out of the car and pulled Jay and Chris out as well. Once Adam was cut loose Jeff dragged him out and they got as far away from the car as they could, in case it was gonna blow or something. The fire would be quick to go out given how hard it was raining but they weren't taking any chances.

"I'm too old for this shit," Steve declared. He had grabbed the weapons and was sitting on the ground with them, shaking his head unhappily. "Fucking FUCKING too old for this shit."

"Yeah..." Jay plopped down next to him, gingerly rubbing his head as he did so. "I think I am too." He tried to put some pressure on the bloody wound on his temple but quickly hissed and dropped his hand. "What are we gonna do now?"

Nobody had an answer for him. Jeff and Adam both looked at each other, both of them opening their mouths to say something but nothing came out. They were at just as much of a loss as everyone was. They stayed still for what felt like forever, their eyes forcing to adjust to see through all the rain that was falling. Over the thunder they could hear positively demonic howls and as Jeff tried to scan their surroundings, several Reapers came flying up over the hill and crashed hard to the ground, skidding to a stop just as a whole mass of demons came running after them. "Oh my god..." Amy said under her breath.

"Can they even kill Reapers?" Chris asked, cringing as he noticed some of the demons sidestepping the Reapers and coming to THEM now. No point in trying to run now. They were spotted and completely fucked.

Steve shook his head and got back up to his feet. "I have no idea." He pulled Jay back up to his feet and raised one of their guns with one hand while grabbing a sword with the other. "Maybe we'll last long enough to find out."

"Why do I doubt that one..." It wasn't exactly a confidence booster but Jeff couldn't help but let it slip out. This wasn't the way he had been looking to go out. This had been the kind of thing Matt had wanted for them. He had wanted...well it didn't matter what he had wanted. It never had truly mattered quite frankly. His entire life had been a series of things he didn't want so what was this one last thing? _Guess what Matty? Looks like you get what you want...I'll go out the exact same way you did..._

_..._

"MARK!" James snarled as he swung his scythe, slicing three demons in half at the same time. The fight between the Reapers and Mark's army had broken out in full force though he was barely paying any attention to it. He had gone for Mark first thing but of course, Mark had vanished on the spot, leaving him to get even angrier...if that was possible at this point. His entire body was literally shaking he wanted to rip Mark apart so badly. He was so close to making his revenge complete. Mark, Wade and Bearer...he had to get these three and then he would finally be done. The remains of the Ministry and the demon army wouldn't matter. They would just fall to the Reapers without their leaders. And even if they didn't, that wasn't his problem. They weren't part of his deal with Satan. Kill Mark and the other horsemen and he got his wife back. It was that simple and he couldn't rest until he made that happen.

"MARK!" He kicked a demon out of his way and looked around angrily. No sign of Mark or Wade...but Bearer was standing up on the hill, watching everything that was going on. He had several demons around him, seemingly as protection, though against him they wouldn't do any good. He started going for him, rearing the scythe back and readying his other hand to snatch the urn. If he got that open the fight would end a whole lot sooner. Opening it would release the souls Mark had taken to aquire his power and would weaken him to the point of death if not just kill him outright. That would leave only Wade to worry about then.

"LAWSON!"

What felt like a bolt of lightning hit James on the back of the neck, sending him down face first to the ground. Mark and Wade were both on him in a heartbeat, Mark trying to hold him down while Wade went for the scythe. James managed to elbow Mark hard enough in the face to make him loosen up and then kicked him the rest of the way off before swinging the scythe, shooking Wade through his moutth and into the back of his skull. He yanked the weapon back up and chopped his head off completely for good measure before turning back to face Mark. Another bolt came at him but this time he managed to block it with the scythe. The bolt flew back at Mark and he dived to get out of the way. James went to take his head off but Mark ducked out of the way of that too. "Come ON!" James snarled. "FIGHT ME!" He lunged for Mark's throat, growling as Mark grabbed the handle of the scythe and tried to take it. He tightened his grip on it, barely even noticing that they were flying all over the place. The handle was starting to heat up, burning his hands but he hardly cared. They flew over the rest of the fight, smashing into trees as they struggled to get the upperhand. The trees cracked as they hit them, one finally going down with them as they hit it one too many times. James landed back first on the ground, feeling a rib crack as Mark drove a knee into his gut when he landed on top of him. Mark tried to yank the scythe away but he kicked him off yet again. This was really starting to piss him off. He had to get the urn. He could fight Mark to the end of time and even if he got a shot in it wouldn't do much good. Mark had invested way too much in being immortal. Getting his hands on Paul was the only way.

...

"STEVE!" Amy buried her battle axe into the face of the demon closest to her and looked around, trying to find the others. They had jumped into the fight together but had quickly been separated. She had been somewhat close to Steve a moment ago and now she couldn't even see him. "Steve!" She jumpd back from a demon, who tried to stick its clawed hand through her chest. Two of the nails grazed her stomach, cutting through the fabric of her shirt and leaving two scratches behind that began to bleed quite badly. She ignored the stinging and swung her axe again, taking off that demon's head. Her arms were starting to get really sore at this point. She didn't know for how much longer she could keep doing this. There was only so much longer she could keep fighting before her arms just refused to keep swinging. Already it felt like she was running just on pure adrenaline and she didn't know how much longer that was going to last. Her mind was screaming for her to retreat but there was nowhere for her to run. Nowhere to hide. She had to fight until she couldn't fight anymore and then she would most likely get killed.

"AMY!" Steve's voice drew her attention and she looked around, spotting him about twenty feet away, absolutely surrounded by demons. He was bleeding from his chest, neck and left leg. A little goblin like thing bit his right calf, making him yell and sink down to his knees.

"NO!" She tried to get over to him but it was too little too late. A large, armor wearing demon with a pig nose and crushed in purple face came up from behind him and punched its fist through his chest, his heart actually grasped in her hand. "NO!" Blinded by the immediate grief that hit her like a sledgehammer, she lunged for the demon, ducking around other ones that tried to get in her way. The demon saw her coming and stood ready, batting her down to the ground when she went to hit it a jumping kick. She hit the ground hard, the air being taken right out of her. She tried to roll back up to her feet, only to be grabbed by the neck and pulled up to face the demon. She started to kick her feet to get away but the blows did nothing against the demon. It just stared at her got second and then snapped her neck like it was nothing.

...

"Jeeeffffreeeeyyy..."

Raven's voice made the hairs on Jeff's neck stand up on end. He had seen Steve and Amy go down but his brain hardly had any time to process it properly. The others were all still alive-for the moment anyway. Chris and Adam were fighting side by side while Jay wasn't much further off...Jeff had no time to worry about any of them though. Raven was coming towards him, a dangerous glit in his eye. Jeff swallowed hard, trying to put some distance between the two of them as he tried to compose himself. He was torn between wanting to kill him and just wanting to run away completely. He ran up the hill, casting a glance behind him. Raven had a clear path to him but he wasn't trying to pounce on him. He was toying with him, laughing at his obvious fear. Jeff went the rest of the way up the hill, tightening his grip on the sword and panting for breath. His palms were sweating and his heart was beating so hard in his chest that he could feel it in his throat.

"Raven QUIT messing around!" Paul yelled. He was standing nearby, the urn almost slipping out of his hand because it was so wet. Jeff just took a moment to glance back at him and that was when Raven chose to strike. In a blink of an eye Raven was on him, lifting him up by the throat, smirking as he gagged and kicked his feet just like Amy did before she died.

"There's nothing wrong with having some fun Paulie," Raven said, loosening his grip just enough to let Jeff get a grasp of air before squeezing uncomfortably tight again. "What's there to worry about?"

Almost as soon as he said that there was a loud bang and James and Mark, once again tangled up in a fight, came flying up towards them. Paul dived out of the way just in time, leaving Raven and Jeff to get crashed into. Lucky for Jeff, James wasn't the one that touched him or he would have been fucked. Instead he just hit the ground as Mark bounced off him, scrambling back as Death and Raven rolled across the ground. Raven didn't immediately died when he was touched...that happened when his neck was snapped like a twig. Jeff felt a great sense of relief but it didn't have time to stay. James launched himself off Raven's body and headed straight for Paul. Jeff shrank back, going unnoticed by all parties now as Paul yelped and protectively held the urn. Mark managed to grab James by the ankle and slammed him down face first to the ground before literally flinging him up over his head like a doll. Jeff watched in shock before shaking it off and looking over at Paul. He was trying to make the escape with the urn...the urn...oh fuck that urn. In the heat of the moment he couldn't remember who said the urn was so essential to Mark but that didn't really matter. He pushed himself up to his feet and recklessly hurled himself at Paul, taking him by surprise and tackling him right down the hill. They rolled down the hill, the urn flying out of Paul's hands as they went. When they finally came to the bottom of the hill, Jeff was the first one up to his feet. He stepped on Paul's back and jumped off him, tucking and rolling the rest of the way to snatch it up.

"MARK!"

In a flash Mark was on Jeff, picking him up by the scruff the neck. Jeff almost dropped the urn, but caught it at the last second, ripping the lid off as fast as he could.

"NO!"

The urn began to vibrate so violently that Jeff couldn't even let it go. Instead he could only watch a bright white light shoot out the urn, the vibrations getting more powerful and making his ears ring by the second. Mark let him go and sank down to his knees, staring up in horror as the white light began to take form. It was almost impossible to tell what it was until Jeff realized it wasn't just one thing; it turned into thousands of faces. All the faces of the people Mark had kiled and had taken their souls for his own need. Jeff finally dropped the urn and scooted back, his eyes wide as Mark's form began to wither right before his eyes. His eyes sunk into his skull and he literally shrunk, turning into a tiny, old man right before them. The spirts hissed, glaring daggers at Mark until James came forward, making them all move aside...all but one. A pint sized woman with big blue eyes and long raven black hair lingered near James, who smiled at her before giving Mark a venemous look.

"Don't..." Mark croaked, reaching one withered hand out to try to plead for mercy.

James just swatted it away before snagging Paul and putting him next to Mark, swinging his scythe and decapitating them both at the same time. The instant their heads hit the ground, another white light blinded Jeff, lasting only several seconds but blinding him more than a couple of minutes. When he could finally see again, Death and the spirits were gone and the rest of Mark's army was gone, leaving him, Adam, Chris and Jay alone. He looked at them, their expressions just as bewildered as his had to be.

They had actually won.


	22. A New Hope

"We need a shovel," Jay said, breaking the stunned and grief filled silence that had come over them. He, Jeff, Adam and Chris were standing over the fallen bodies of Amy and Steve, whom they had laid side by side. The sun was out for the first time in forever though it had yet to actually warm any of them up. The wind was quite chilly actually and Jay found himself crossing his arms over his chest to try to keep himself from shivering. None of them could believe that they were even standing there, in one piece none the less. Adam's ankle was hurt and he was hanging on to Jeff to stay up on his own two feet. Chris was holding his back and standing a bit more crooked than he should have. They were going to have to try to find a way to fix that themselves, given that no chiropractor probably made it through all this. He wasn't sure who, if anyone else had really made it. He hoped there was, somewhere out there. Wasn't like they could repopulate jack shit.

"Where the fuck are we gonna get a shovel?" Chris asked. His voice was strained from the pain and he grimaced as he tried to straighten himself up. "You see one laying around?"

"Maybe there's store still standing nearby?" Adam suggested.

"In the middle of nowhere?" Jeff shook his head. "We'll have to leave them and come back if we can find one."

That wasn't exactly what any of them actually wanted to do. Jay thought if felt really really wrong, especially because these were their friends. They didn't have a choice in the matter though. They had nothing to dig graves with and that wasn't going to change any time in the near future. They didn't even have a car anymore so that they could take the bodies with them until shovels could be found. The bodies would have to stay, whether they liked it or not.

"You gonna be okay to try to walk?" Jay asked Adam as they started to turn and go on their way. Chris had already taken off already though he wasn't getting very far. His back was leaving him able to not walk very well. Jay would have picked him up but with that type of injury he was actually afraid to do so. He didn't want to make it worse somehow. Adam though, was going to have to be carried. He couldn't just hop on one foot the entire way. Not only would that slow them down even more but he just didn't possess that type of balance. The only reason he asked was because if they just picked him up he would bitch until they put him down and let him try and fail on his own.

"Um..." Adam let go of Jeff and tried to walk on his own. He didn't get very far at all. The moment he put weight on his injured ankle he crumpled down, forcing Jay and Jeff to catch him before he fell over completely. "No," he admitted through gritted teeth. "No. I can't..."

"Here." Jeff handed Jay his weapon and motioned for Adam to hop on to his back. "I got you."

Adam grabbed on to Jeff's shoulders and jumped on like he was told to, wincing a bit as Jeff grabbed on to his legs to help keep him in place. Jay looked around to see if there was anything that they could use to wrap up his ankle but unless one of them was going to go shirtless, there was nothing there. Shit. They would have to try to find something on the way. "Where are we going to go?" he asked, going with the obvious question. That was about the only thing that he could think to ask at this point. They couldn't dwell on Amy and Steve and he didn't want to think of what they were going to do in terms of long term plans. He was having a hard time even processing that all of this happened. Less than a week ago, everything had been fine...well, as fine as the world they lived in could possibly be. Their lives had been realatively normal anyway. But now, for all they knew, they were the only ones left. Probably not the case but it sure felt like it. Thousands upon thousands-perhaps even millions-had died. Several of their own friends were dead. And none of it felt real. Not completely. It just felt like one of those horrible dreams that just felt real but really weren't.

Chris exchanged looks with Jeff and Adam before shrugging his shoulders. "Anywhere," he replied. "Wherever we find people."

"A hospital for me," Adam said, groaning in pain as he tried to move his ankle.

"IHOP sounds good right now..." Jeff just shrugged his shoulders innocently as the others all gave him a look. "Sorry. I just realized that I'm starving."

Jay opened his mouth to say something when his own stomach growled rather loudly. That made him try to think back to when the last time he had ate was. He couldn't even remember at this point. "You know, I could go for some pancakes too," he admitted. "We gotta make it happen."

"Even after all this?" Adam asked in disbelief.

"If this shit didn't qualify as an excuse to eat our feelings with pancakes, I don't know what will."

...

James groaned and sat up slowly, having absolutely no idea where he was. He was in a lot of pain though...pain...he was actually feeling pain. He gasped and put his hand over his chest, not only feeling it rising and falling as he breathed but feeling his heart beat inside his chest. He was alive.

"The Devil is impressed."

He blinked and looked up, seeing Torrie, one of Satan's messengers standing before him. "He really is impressed," she said, her lips twitching into a smirk. "He's sad you wouldn't consider coming back into the fold." She held her hand up when he opened his mouth to protest. "A deal is a deal. And he always honors his."

"So where-"

"JAMIE!"

James whirled around just in time to have Mindy launch herself into his arms. His heart rose and he immediately wrapped his arms around her as tight as he could, kissing her all over as she cried into his neck.

"She won't remember a thing," Torrie said, just in case he was listening. "Last thing she remembers is waiting for you to come home...we'll let you decide what to tell her."

James just nodded, not even glancing at Torrie as she took her leave. He just kept kissing Mindy, telling her that everything would be fine. He had no idea where they were or where they would even go but it really didn't matter. They were together, that was all that mattered to him. "It's gonna be fine Baby Doll," he promised, hugging her so tight that he nearly crushed her. "It's gonna be fine baby. It's all gonna be just fine."

...

After hours of walking, Chris, Jay, Adam and Jeff finally found a car that they could hotwire and Jay drove aimlessly, trying to find some kind of human life still standing. Adam and Jeff were in the backseat, completely passed out. Chris was in the passenger's seat, staring out the window and saying so little that Jay kept getting convinced that he had fallen asleep too until he finally spoke up. Jay's eyes were starting to feel heavy but he kept trying to shake it off so he could keep driving. Adam couldn't press on the pedals with his injured ankle and this was the first time Jay had ever really seen Jeff sleep as deep as this. Jay felt too bad to wake him up and make him drive.

"Can we pull over?" Chris asked, startling Jay a bit.

"We didn't really get anywhere..." Jay said slowly, glancing around and noting that they were in what was left of a city. He didn't even know what city but since there was pretty much nothing left, the name of it really didn't matter.

"We've been driving all night," Chris pointed out. "If I don't get out and stretch my back's gonna go out for good."

Jay sighed and immediately pulled over to the side of the road, not wanting that. As soon as the car was stopped Chris got out, stretching his back and gingerly walking around. Jay got out as well, stretching his back and legs before laying down on the hood of the car. The sun was just starting to rise up on the horizon. He smiled softly as he watched it, but the smile soon disappeared as he yawned. He usually liked to watch the sun rise though getting up to see it was better than being up all night and then seeing it. It could be better appreciated. "Think there's a gas station still standing nearby?" he asked Chris. He was trying as hard as he could to not think about what had happened about the last time they had been at a gas station. He really didn't want to remember any of this really. It was all just way too fucked up.

"Chris?" He hadn't gotten an answer from the other man and he sat up and turned around, seeing that Chris was walking away from him, heading towards two small figures in the distance. "What the hell?" He didn't even grab a weapon or anything. He just walked forward and joined Chris, suprised to see two small children were the figures in front of them. They were a boy and a girl, no older than ten and the girl was holding a baby. They looked enough alike for him to reasonably guess they were siblings. "Hello..."

"Did the world end yet?" the little girl asked.

Chris and Jay exchanged looks. "Who told you the world was ending?" Chris asked.

"Mommy," the boy replied. "Before she got eated by the monsters."

Jay cringed. "Where's your daddy?"

The kids just shrugged.

Jay and Chris exchanged another look. Most likely the father was dead which meant they really couldn't just leave them out there to fend for themselves. How they had managed for however long they had was a feat in itself. "Come on." Jay offered out his hand for them to take. "We'll see if we can find your daddy and get you guys something to eat." He smiled nicely as the kids hesitated. "We won't hurt you, we promise."

After another moment of hesitation the boy took his hand and the girl grabbed on to Chris. "Do you really think you can find my daddy?" the boy asked.

Jay nodded despite his doubts on the matter. Not like he was gonna tell the kid any different. "If we made it through this I say about anything is possible."


End file.
